THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


z 

b 

o 


Z 


PHANTOM  CLUB 
PAPERS 


THIRD     SERIES 


PRINTED    FOR 
THE     CLUB 


MILWAUKEE 
1914 


' 


PREFACE 


If  we  may  accept  at  face  value  the  cordial  welcome 
extended  by  our  friends  to  the  volumes  of  Phantom  Club 
Papers  heretofore  published,  we  may  be  pardoned  for 
assuming  that  the  present  volume  will  be  not  less  kindly 
received. 

It  is  our  painful  duty  to  note  that  since  the  issue  of 
our  last  volume  we  have  been  called  to  mourn  the  loss 
of  four  of  our  members — Irving  M.  Bean,  Ogden  H. 
Fethers,  Joseph  V.  Quarles  and  James  A.  Bryden. 
Obituary  tributes  to  these  brethren  will  be  found  in  the 
last  pages  of  the  volume,  but  words  wholly  fail  to  measure 
the  sorrow  caused  by  loss  of  such  companionship. 


KJ- 


CONTENTS. 

Page 

The   Chicago   Convention   of   1860   and   the   Man   It 

Nominated,  By  Gebby  W.  Hazelton    -      -      -      -  7 

Abraham  Lincoln   (Verse),  By  John  Goadby  Gregory  28 

George  Washington,  By  George  Record  Peck    -      -      -  29 

Memory,  By  Gerry  W.  Hazelton 43 

The  DreaM  of  New  France,  By  Frederick  C.  Winkler  68 
Old    Time    Journalism     (Verse),    By    John    Goadby 

Gregory 84 

Horace  Greeley,  By  Gerry  W.  Hazelton        ...  85 

A  Court  That  Kept  the  Faith,  By  John  B.  Winslow  105 

On  Growing  Old,  By  Neal  Brown 121 

At  Oconomowoo  (Verse),  By  John  G.  Gregory    -      -  134 

In  Memoriam — • 

Capt.  Irving  W.  Bean,  By  James  G.  Jenkins      -      -  135 
Ogden  H.  Fethers  and  Judge  Joseph  V.  Quarles,  By 

James  G.  Jenkins 137 

James  A.  Bryden,  By  Gerry  W.  Hazelton    -      -      -  140 

Phantom  Club  Roster 144 


THE  CHICAGO  CONVENTIONS1 

OF  i860  AND  THE  MAN 

IT  NOMINATED. 

PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS. 
By  Gerry  W.  Hazelton. 


History  measures  the  significance  of  events  by  rela- 
tion. The  importance  of  an  incident  is  determined,  not 
by  the  temporary  enthusiasm  it  awakens,  but  by  its  bear- 
ing upon  other  incidents  which  follow  in  its  train.  These 
may  be  far  reaching  and  of  transcendent  import,  or  they 
may  collapse  and  disappear  like  bubbles  on  the  stream. 
It  all  depends.  If  they  mark  a  change  in  the  trend  of 
events  and  develop  into  large  proportions  and  grand 
achievement,  they  emphasize  and  illumine  the  initial  inci- 
dent. If  they  prove  abortive,  the  incident  is  shorn  of 
significance  and  the  historian  takes  no  note  of  it. 

The  convention  which  assembled  in  the  Wigwam,  in 
the  City  of  Chicago,  in  May,  i860,  to  nominate  a  candi- 
date for  president,  assumes  historic  prominence  only  be- 
cause of  its  relation  to  succeeding  events. 

As  a  mere  agency  for  discharging  one  of  the  func- 
tions of  a  political  party  that  convention  was  substantially 
like  all  nominating  conventions.  It  assembled,  organ- 
ized,  appointed  its  committees,  proclaimed  its  platform, 
nominated  its  candidates  and  adjourned,  as  similar  con- 
ventions had  done  before  and  have  done  since;  yet  be- 


8  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

cause  the  man  it  named  for  president  won  a  place  in  the 
ranks  of  the  immortals,  that  convention  enjoys  an  emi- 
nence accorded  to  no  other  in  the  history  of  the  republic. 

Those  who  shared  in  or  witnessed  its  proceedings 
cannot  fail  to  remember  it  with  special  interest.  It  was 
my  privilege  to  be  present  as  a  spectator,  anxious  to  ob- 
serve what  was  transpiring;  and  much  of  what  I  saw  is 
still,  after  these  many  years,  distinct  in  my  recollection, 
and  I  hardly  need  explain  the  impulse  which  has  prompted 
the  preparation  of  this  paper.  I  was  not  only  a  spec- 
tator, but  a  very  sympathetic  one,  and  it  affords  me  pleas- 
ure to  recall  that  I  witnessed  the  proceedings  which  in- 
troduced to  the  world  one  of  the  most  unique  and  en- 
gaging characters  in  history.  The  things  which  appeal 
to  us  are  longest  remembered  and  most  frequently  re- 
verted to. 

The  occasion,  as  may  well  be  imagined,  was  marked 
by  many  interesting  and  exciting  incidents,  and  in  respect 
of  the  enthusiasm  which  pervaded  the  entire  city  during 
the  week  of  the  convention  it  was  unlike  any  other  I  have 
ever  attended. 

It  is  now  more  than  fifty  years  since  that  convention 
assembled.  Not  one  of  the  delegates  prominent  in  the 
proceedings  remains,  and  only  a  few  of  those  in  the  Wide- 
Awake  marching  clubs  which  paraded  the  streets,  or  of 
the  throngs  of  citizens  who  cheered  them  as  they  passed, 
are  living  now.  The  banners  which  gayly  fluttered  and 
flaunted  in  the  crowded  streets  during  those  eventful 
days  were  long  ago  consumed  by  moth  and  rust. 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   i860.  9 

Indeed,  the  convention  itself  is  so  distinctly  a  thing  of 
the  past,  that  it  can  now  be  discussed  and  considered, 
with  entire  freedom  from  restraint. 

While  it  embraced  many  of  the  eminent  statesmen 
and  orators  of  that  day,  it  can  hardly  be  claimed  that 
the  proportion  of  such  was  greater  than  is  usually  found 
in  a  national  convention ;  but  the  spirit  which  pervaded 
its  deliberations,  the  spirit  which  was  encountered  on  the 
streets  and  in  the  hotels  of  Chicago,  served  to  distinguish 
it  from  all  other  similar  gatherings. 

It  is  impossible  at  the  present  time  to  get  an  adequate 
conception  of  the  feeling  which  animated  the  masses  of 
people  gathered  from  all  the  northern  states  to  witness 
and  to  manifest  their  intense  interest  in  the  activities 
and  purposes  of  the  occasion.  We  are  too  far  removed 
from  it.  It  belongs  to  a  past  era,  but  we  are  sufficiently 
familiar  with  historic  data  to  comprehend  something  of 
the  state  of  public  sentiment  at  that  period. 

The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise,  the  Dred 
Scott  Decision,  the  bloody  and  desperate  attempt  to  force 
slavery  into  Kansas,  coupled  with  inflamed  and  intemper- 
ate oratory,  had  created  the  impression  that  the  slave 
power,  as  it  was  called,  had  resolved  to  dominate  the  gov- 
ernment and  control  its  future  policy.  The  relations  be- 
tween the  two  sections  had  become  strained  as  never  be- 
fore, and  while  it  was  earnestly  hoped  that  civil  strife 
might  be  averted,  there  were  many  who  thought  the 
trend  of  events  pointed  unmistakably  to  that  dread  result. 


10  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  convention  assembled  at 
a  critical  moment  in  the  history  of  the  government. 

The  reason  for  calling  it  in  Chicago  is  only  a  matter 
of  conjecture,  but  it  is  altogether  probable  that  it  was 
a  concession  on  the  part  of  Seward's  managers,  which 
was  deemed  at  the  time  good  politics.  New  York  and 
New  England  were  thought  to  be  well  in  hand ;  several 
of  the  northwestern  states  were  friendly  to  Seward,  and 
Mr.  Weed  of  Albany,  who  was  Seward's  most  intimate 
friend  and  leading  manager,  doubtless  believed  it  a  good 
stroke  of  policy  to  yield  to  the  pressure  of  Illinois  and  the 
northwest  for  Chicago.  It  was  a  fatal  mistake,  but  it 
must  be  remembered  that  at  that  time  the  Lincoln  boom 
was  too  insignificant  to  excite  serious  consideration.  For 
months  the  trend  of  sentiment  was  decidedly  favorable 
to  Seward.  His  public  career  had  been  exceptionally 
brilliant  and  attractive.  He  had  achieved  eminence  at  the 
bar ;  he  had  attracted  attention  as  governor  of  the  Empire 
State ;  he  had  come  to  be  recognized  as  the  leader  of  his 
party  in  the  Senate ;  his  views  on  all  the  great  issues  of 
the  period  were  in  harmony  with  those  of  his  party ;  and 
his  friends  were  so  confident  of  his  nomination  when  the 
convention  assembled  that  they  were  totally  unprepared 
for  what  followed. 

The  candidate  next  in  prominence  was  Salmon  P. 
Chase  of  Ohio,  a  statesman  of  distinguished  ability,  who, 
like  Seward,  had  been  governor  of  his  state  before  taking 
a  seat  in  the  Senate.  Intellectually  he  was  the  peer  of 
any  of  his  contemporaries,  but  owing  to  his  radical  views 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   i860.  11 

on  sectional  questions  was  less  acceptable  to  party  leaders 
than  Mr.  Seward ;  but  aside  from  this  he  was  not  a  poli- 
tician himself  and  his  managers  were  thoroughly  out- 
classed by  the  friends  of  Seward  and  of  Lincoln. 

Simon  Cameron  of  Pennsylvania  was  a  nominal  candi- 
date, but  at  no  time  was  his  candidacy  regarded  as  any- 
thing more  than  trading  stock. 

The  Missouri  delegates  were  moderately  enthusiastic 
in  the  support  of  Edward  Bates,  an  old  line  Whig  of  the 
conservative  type,  whose  support,  outside  his  own  state, 
was  due  almost  entirely  to  the  friendly  feeling  of  Horace 
Greeley  of  the  New  York  Tribune.  Horace  thought  him 
the  man  for  the  hour. 

Lincoln  was  the  dark  horse.  No  one  knew  his 
strength,  and  few  understood  that  the  winds  of  heaven 
were  blowing  his  way.  It  can  hardly  be  said  that  his 
representatives  in  and  about  the  convention  were  superior 
to  those  who  were  looking  after  the  interests  of  Mr.  Sew- 
ard, but  it  can  be  said  that  they  understood  their  business 
to  the  minutest  detail,  and  they  had  the  advantage  of 
location.  They  knew  Lincoln,  they  believed  in  him,  they 
admired  him,  they  loved  him,  and  they  rallied  to  his  sup- 
port with  a  measure  of  enthusiasm  which  knew  no  limi- 
tations ;  and  they  had  the  moral  support  of  the  thousands 
of  citizens  who  had  come  from  all  parts  of  Illinois  to 
discharge  what  seemed  to  them  a  patriotic  duty.  They 
antagonized  no  one,  they  eagerly  pledged  their  support 
in  the  successful  candidate,  but  they  claimed  that  Lin- 
coln had  elements  of  strength  with  the  plain  people,  par- 


12  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

ticularly  those  of  the  west  and  northwest,  which  could 
not  be  safely  overlooked.  They  had  another  advantage. 
If  Seward  was  nominated  the  New  York  politicians  would 
be  likely  to  have  a  larger  control  of  patronage  than  others 
were  willing  to  concede. 

These  were  the  candidates  whose  names  were  to  go 
before  the  convention.  One  of  them  was  certain  to  be 
nominated.  Mr.  Weed  sent  a  dispatch  to  his  paper,  the 
Albany  Journal,  on  the  morning  of  the  convention,  that 
it  would  be  William  H.  Seward.    He  doubtless  believed  it. 

I  pause  here  to  direct  attention  to  certain  matters 
of  detail  which  are  associated  with  the  convention  and 
for  this  reason  cannot  be  overlooked. 

Chicago,  in  May,  i860,  claimed  a  population  of  1 15,- 
000  souls.  Many  of  the  leading  citizens  of  the  town  re- 
membered it  when  it  was  hardly  more  than  a  frontier 
settlement.  Its  growth  had  been  phenomenal  and  the 
claim  was  frequently  heard  even  then  that  it  was  destined 
to  become  ere  long  one  of  the  world's  great  business 
marts.  At  this  time  the  city  was  believed  to  have  ample 
hotel  capacity  to  accommodate  the  convention,  but  lacked 
an  adequate  auditorium.  This  the  committee  agreed  to 
supply,  and  the  historic  Wigwam  was  the  redemption  of 
the  pledge. 

It  was  a  rude  structure  made  of  undressed  lumber, 
intended  only  for  the  immediate  purpose  to  which  it  was 
devoted ;  and  all  the  more  interesting  because  it  was 
unique  and  suggestive  of  the  frontier.  The  exact  di- 
mensions are  not  recalled,  but  it  furnished  ample  space 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   i860.  13 

for  the  delegates  and  alternates,  as  well  as  the  accredited 
representatives  of  the  Press,  on  what  might  literally  be 
called  the  ground  floor,  but  for  the  liberal  supply  of  saw- 
dust which  concealed  it.  The  posts  were  high  enough  to 
afford  gallery  room  for  spectators,  though  not  by  any 
means  adequate  to  the  demand. 

At  either  end  were  wide  spaces  for  ingress  and  egress 
protected  by  sliding  doors  guarded  by  the  sergeant-at- 
arms  and  his  deputies.  On  the  north  side  was  the  plat- 
form, midway  between  either  end  of  the  building,  and 
the  seats  for  the  delegates  were  heavy  boards  supported 
by  strong  wooden  chairs.  The  roof  was  in  keeping  with 
the  general  character  of  the  structure. 

Such  was  the  enclosure  in  which  a  chapter  was  to  be 
written  in  the  history  of  the  republic  not  less  important 
in  the  cause  of  civilization  than  the  chapter  written  at 
Runnymede  more  than  six  centuries  earlier,  or  the  chap- 
ter written  by  our  forefathers  in  T776  in  Independence 
Hall. 

Outside,  the  streets  were  crowded  with  moving 
masses  of  humanity  watching  and  cheering  the  various 
clubs  and  organizations  as  they  marched  to  their  head- 
quarters or  paraded  the  streets  to  demonstrate  their  en- 
thusiasm and  their  loyalty  to  their  particular  candidates. 
One  could  hardly  walk  a  block  without  encountering  a 
band  of  music,  or  witnessing  a  knot  of  people  telling  each 
other  what  they  had  seen  or  speculating  on  the  probable 
action  of  the  convention. 

Entering  one  of  the  hotels  on  the  afternoon  preceding 


14  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

the  day  of  the  convention.  T  recall  seeing  Mr.  Greeley 
surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  curious  people  eager  to  see  the 
man  about  whom  so  much  was  said,  and  to  hear  what  he 
had  to  say.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  convention,  not 
from  his  own  state,  but  from  Oregon.  Hostile  to  Seward, 
and  hence  unable  to  secure  a  seat  in  the  convention  from 
Xew  York,  he  had  managed  to  obtain  a  proxy  from  one 
of  the  Oregon  delegates  which  entitled  him  to  share  in 
the  proceedings  as  a  member  of  that  delegation.  Mr. 
Greeley  undoubtedly  excited  more  curiosity  than  any 
other  delegate  in  the  convention.  He  was  the  founder  and 
editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  and  his  friends  thought 
him  the  leading  journalist  of  his  time.  Every  one  was 
anxious  to  see  him,  and  the  people  in  the  galleries  asked 
to  have  him  pointed  out.  He  was  not  friendly  to  Lincoln 
at  the  time,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  he  never  cared 
to  be  classed  with  his  admirers. 

There  is  another  incident  which  lingers  in  memory, 
though  not  perhaps  of  any  real  importance  except  as  it 
illustrates  the  spirit  of  the  gathering.  The  delegation 
from  Montana  had  brought  with  them  a  most  delightful 
singer.  He  was  a  man  in  middle  life,  of  winning  man- 
ners, and  with  a  voice  as  clear  and  sweet  as  the  notes  of 
a  silver  bell.  I  have  heard  many  of  the  noted  singers  of 
my  time,  but  never  a  sweeter  voice  than  his.  He  had 
come  to  sing  and  to  swell  the  enthusiasm  of  the  occasion, 
and  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  he  did  not  lack  an 
audience.  He  went  from  one  hotel  to  another  with  a 
crowd  of  admirers  in  his  train.     Occasionally,  he  would 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   i860.  15 

stop  on  the  street  corner  and  instantly  a  crowd  would 
gather  to  listen,  to  admire  and  to  cheer.  The  songs  of 
the  Civil  War  were  then  an  unknown  quantity.  He  sang 
"My  Country  "Tis  of  Thee,  Sweet  Land  of  Liberty,"  the 
"Star  Spangled  Banner,"  "Columbia,  the  Gem  of  the 
Ocean"  and  "The  Sword  of  Bunker  Hill."  The  last 
named  seemed  to  be  the  favorite  with  the  crowd,  and  they 
shouted  and  swung  their  hats  like  a  mass  of  excited  boys 
when  he  sang  "And  thirty  millions  bless  the  sires  and 
sword  of  Bunker  Hill !"  These  old  songs  would  not  move 
us  now,  the  conditions  are  all  so  different ;  but  they  stirred 
the  listeners  then  like  a  trumpet  call. 

At  the  headquarters  of  the  Illinois  delegation,  where 
a  crowd  of  Lincoln's  friends  could  always  be  found,  two 
old  rails  were  displayed  which  it  was  said  were  split  by 
Lincoln  and  John  Hanks  in  1830. 

The  Missouri  delegation  had  brought  to  Chicago  with 
them  a  huge  bowie  knife,  some  eight  or  ten  feet  long, 
which  was  labeled  :  "The  knife  that  John  F.  Potter  in- 
tended to  use  in  his  engagement  with  Roger  A.  Prior  had 
the  affair  not  been  called  off." 

The  weapon  only  excited  amusement  for  the  time 
being,  but  the  rails  proved  an  important  factor  in  the 
campaign  and  have  been  assigned  a  place  in  history,  like 
the  log  cabin  of  1840. 

Curiosity  led  an  immense  throng  of  people  to  the  Wig- 
wam on  the  evening  preceding  the  day  of  the  convention. 
Among   these   were   many   delegates   anxious   to   see   the 


16  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

novel  structure  in  which  the  convention  was  to  conduct 
its  business. 

In  response  to  a  general  desire,  some  one  called  the 
gathering  to  order  and  an  hour  or  more  was  spent  in 
listening  to  speeches.  Governor  Andrews  of  Massachu- 
setts, W.  D.  Kelly  of  Pennsylvania  and  Carl  Schurz  of 
Wisconsin  were  among  the  speakers,  all  of  whom  were 
heard  with  eager  interest. 

The  16th  of  May  dawned  fair  and  bright,  and  long 
before  twelve  o'clock  the  galleries  of  the  Wigwam  were 
crowded  with  people,  and  tens  of  thousands  were  in  the 
streets  watching  the  arrival  of  delegates.  At  a  few  min- 
utes after  twelve,  Mr.  E.  D.  Morgan  of  New  York,  chair- 
man of  the  National  Committee,  called  the  convention  to 
order,  and  at  the  conclusion  of  a  stirring  speech  nomi- 
nated David  Wilmot  of  Pennsylvania,  the  well  known 
author  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  for  temporary  chairman. 

An  amusing  exchange  of  compliments  occurred  during 
the  organization  of  the  convention,  which  disclosed  Mr. 
Greeley's  readiness  at  retort.  He  had  submitted  a  motion 
on  some  subject  which  he  deemed  of  sufficient  impor- 
tance to  engage  the  attention  of  the  convention,  and  sup- 
ported the  same  with  a  few  remarks.  The  motion  was 
antagonized  by  one  of  the  delegates,  who  alluded  to  Mr. 
Greeley  as  the  distinguished  gentleman  from  Oregon.  The 
allusion  was  evidently  relished  by  the  New  York  dele- 
gation, but  no  sooner  had  the  delegate  resumed  his  seat 
than  Mr.  Greeley  was  on  his  feet. 

"The  gentleman,"   said   Mr.   Greeley,  in  his  peculiar 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF    i860.  17 

falsetto  voice,  which  attracted  general  attention,  "the  gen- 
tleman from  Rhode  Island  or  Delaware,  or  some  place 
unknown  to  me.  evidently  does  not  comprehend  the  pur- 
port of  my  motion."  The  retort  occasioned  general  mer- 
riment and  left  the  impression  that  the  distinguished  gen- 
tleman from  Oregon  was  able  to  take  care  of  himself. 

The  day  closed  with  the  selection  of  George  Ashman 
of  Massachusetts,  then  a  distinguished  member  of  Con- 
gress, as  permanent  president,  and  the  preliminary  work 
of  the  convention  was  accomplished. 

The  consideration  of  the  platform  was  reserved  for 
the  following  day.  The  popular  understanding  is  that  the 
committee  on  resolutions  formulates  the  platform.  In 
point  of  fact,  various  delegates  come  to  the  convention 
with  resolutions  already  drafted  for  the  consideration  of 
the  committee,  and  from  these,  as  drawn  or  amended  by 
the  committee,  the  platform  is  finally  agreed  upon  and 
reported  to  the  convention. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  incidents  of  the  day  grew 
out  of  the  consideration  of  the  platform.  After  the  same 
was  read,  the  question  of  its  adoption  was  submitted, 
when  Mr.  Giddings  moved  an  amendment  to  the  first 
resolution,  embracing  a  phrase  from  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  affirming  that  all  men  are  created  equal, 
and  endowed  by  their  creator  with  certain  inalienable 
rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  Enstead  of  adopting  this  amendment,  as  the 
logic  of  the  situation  required,  it  was  opposed  by  the 
chairman   of   the  committee  as   unnecessary,  and   some- 


18  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

what  timidly  rejected,  whereupon  Mr.  Giddings  took  his 
hat  and  withdrew  from  the  convention.  Before  he  had 
reached  the  door  of  the  Wigwam,  George  William  Curtis 
sprang  to  his  feet  and  shouted — "Mr.  President!"  A 
hush  fell  upon  the  assembly,  and  all  eyes  were  turned 
toward  the  speaker.  In  a  moment  came  cries  from  all 
quarters — "Take  the  platform!  Take  the  platform!" 
"No,"  said  Mr.  Curtis,  mounting  the  bench,  "I  can  be 
heard  from  here."  He  then  proceeded  to  read  an  amend- 
ment to  the  second  resolution  substantially  the  same  as 
that  just  voted  down.  A  question  of  order  was  raised 
and  overruled,  and  in  a  clear,  ringing  voice  the  speaker 
continued :  "Gentlemen  of  the  Convention,  I  beg  you  to 
consider  well,  consider  well,  whether  you  are  prepared  to 
go  before  the  people  in  the  campaign  which  is  just  before 
us  in  defense  of  the  charge  that  here  in  this  convention, 
here  where  the  free  winds  of  heaven  sweep  over  your 
teeming  prairies,  here  in  the  Citv  of  Chicago,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  i860,  you  winced  and  quailed  and  shrank  from 
giving  your  sanction  to  the  words  of  the  immortal  de- 
claration proclaimed  to  the  world  by  our  fathers  in  1776!" 
The  earnest  pleading  voice  of  the  orator  reached  every 
ear  in  the  convention.  The  scene  was  dramatic.  I  can 
almost  fancy  I  hear  it  now  as  I  heard  it  then — a  challenge 
to  the  manhood  of  every  delegate,  as  resistless  as  the 
sweep  of  a  tempest.  The  amendment  which  had  just  been 
rejected  was  adopted  with  a  tumultuous  aye,  and  before 
the  applause  had  subsided  Mr.  Giddings  returned  to  his 
seat  with  a  show  of  delight  and  satisfaction  he  took  no 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   i860.  19 

pains  to  conceal.  I  have  heard  many  eloquent  speeches, 
but  I  recall  none  more  effective  than  the  brief  appeal  of 
George  William  Curtis  in  that  convention  on  that  after- 
noon. 

The  nomination  was  to  be  made  on  the  following  day, 
and  the  crowd  in  and  about  the  Wigwam  when  the  con- 
vention was  called  to  order  indicated  the  intense  interest 
in  the  event.  After  the  informal  ballot  the  name  of  Cam- 
eron was  withdrawn  and  the  list  of  candidates  was  re- 
duced to  four.  No  one  expected  that  the  first  ballot 
would  decide  the  contest,  but  it  was  expected  to  close  out 
the  weaker  candidates  and  to  limit  the  choice  to  either 
Seward  or  Lincoln,  because  it  had  become  manifest  that 
one  of  these  would  win  the  prize.  The  most  intense  in- 
terest was  manifested  as  the  states  were  called.  On  the 
first  formal  ballot  Seward  received  184^  votes,  Chase 
4254,  Bate  35,  Lincoln  181,  scattering  22;  whole  number 
465 ;  necessary  to  a  choice  233.  Seward  had  received  the 
most  votes,  but  Lincoln  was  a  close  second,  and  his 
friends  were  jubilant. 

The  second  ballot  followed.  The  changes  were  all  to 
Lincoln  and  it  quickly  became  apparent  that  Lincoln  was 
to  be  the  nominee  of  the  convention.  The  vote  for 
Seward  was  180,  for  Lincoln  231^,  and  when  Mr.  Carter 
of  Ohio  transferred  four  votes  from  Chase  to  Lincoln  the 
requisite  majority  was  assured  and  the  exciting  and  mo- 
mentous contest  was  settled.  Interest  now  centered  in 
the  New  York  delegation.  It  was  known  that  their  dis- 
appointment was  extreme.     They  had  come  to  the  con- 


20  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

vention  with  absolute  confidence  that  their  candidate 
would  take  the  coveted  honor.  They  had  seen  his  flag 
go  down  in  hopeless  defeat,  and  their  hearts  were  sore. 

A  hurried  consultation  was  held  among  the  leaders  of 
the  New  York  delegation,  and  when  Mr.  Evarts  arose  and 
moved  that  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln  be  made 
unanimous  the  scene  which  followed  beggared  description. 
The  delegates  sprang  to  their  feet  and  cheered  and  threw 
their  hats  in  the  air  and  hugged  each  other  in  a  wild 
transport  of  enthusiasm.  Outside  was  heard  the  boom, 
boom,  boom,  of  the  artillery,  and  the  tumult  and  cheering 
of  the  people  was  like  the  roar  of  Niagara.  At  length 
the  president  succeeded  in  restoring  order,  and  the  mo- 
tion of  Mr.  Evarts  was  adopted  with  a  thunderous  aye. 
Lincoln  was  the  unanimous  choice  of  the  convention. 

The  nomination  of  Hannibal  Hamlin  of  Maine  for  vice 
president  quickly  followed,  and  the  work  of  the  conven- 
tion passed  into  history. 

In  the  light  of  modern  methods  it  is  interesting  to 
know  that  no  oratory  was  wasted  in  placing  the  names  of 
candidates  before  the  convention.  "On  behalf  of  the 
delegation  from  New  York,"  said  Mr.  Evarts,  "I 
nominate  William  H.  Seward."  "On  behalf  of  the  Illi- 
nois delegation,"  said  Mr.  Judd,  "I  nominate  Abraham 
Lincoln."  The  other  names  were  presented  in  the  same 
simple  and  dignified  manner.  The  speech  of  Ingersoll  in 
the  Cincinnati  convention  in  1876  in  nominating  Blaine 
was  a  splendid  exhibition  of  oratory.  Nothing  could  be 
finer ;    but  it  did  not  change  a  vote.     The  same  may  be 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF    i860.         21 

said  of  Conklin's  speech  for  Grant  and  Garfield's  speech 
for  Sherman  in  the  Chicago  convention  in  1880.  In  each 
instance  the  speech  was  unavailing.  But  it  is  hardly 
probable  the  sensible  and  impressive  precedent  of  that 
historic  occasion  will  again  be  followed.  There  is  always 
the  lingering  hope  that  a  brilliant  speech  may  be  of  serv- 
ice, and  there  is  never  any  lack  of  orators  in  such  con- 
ventions more  than  willing  to  be  heard ;  and  even  if  the 
eloquent  and  studied  sentences  and  paragraphs  are  for- 
gotten by  the  public,  they  can  always  be  found  in  the 
scrap-book  of  the  speaker. 

Referring  again  to  the  disappointment  of  the  New 
York  delegation  over  the  defeat  of  their  candidate,  it  must 
be  said  that  mingled  with  this  feeling  was  the  apprehen- 
sion that  the  convention  had  made  a  grave  mistake ;  and 
when  the  ostensible  qualifications  of  the  candidates  are 
considered  we  are  constrained  to  admit  the  reasonableness 
of  this  apprehension.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century  Mr. 
Seward  had  been  a  conspicuous  figure  in  public  life.  In 
the  domain  of  statesmanship,  he  had  attained  the  highest 
rank.  He  was  generally  recognized  as  the  leader  of  his 
party,  and  his  friends  thought  him  the  man  of  all  others 
at  that  critical  period  to  take  the  helm  of  government. 
On  the  other  hand.  Mr.  Lincoln  could  hardly  be  said  to 
hold  any  recognized  rank  as  a  factor  in  national  affairs. 
He  had  won  distinction  in  his  debate  with  Douglas,  and 
his  address  at  Cooper  Institute  in  February  preceding  his 
nomination  had  attracted  marked  attention,  but  it  is  due 
to  truth  to  say  that  these  achievements,  however  remark- 


22  PHANTOM   CLUB    PAPERS. 

able  and  suggestive,  were  not  accepted  by  the  leaders  at 
the  seat  of  government  as  indicating  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
possessed  the  executive  ability  required  to  cope  with  the 
mighty  problems  of  the  period.  This  feeling  of  distrust 
became  more  general  as  the  outlook  became  more  and 
more  alarming.  It  was  in  the  air,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  must 
have  had  poignant  conception  of  it. 

Mr.  Seward's  proposal  to  the  president  four  weeks 
after  the  inauguration  to  relieve  him  of  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  his  office  and  assume  them  himself  tells 
the  whole  story.  Such  an  amazing  proposition  could  only 
have  been  prompted  by  a  sense  of  duty.  Read  in  connec- 
tion with  his  letter  written  to  the  president  on  the  Sunday 
preceding  the  inauguration,  it  cannot  be  misunderstood. 
That  Mr.  Seward  sincerely  believed  the  president  did  not 
comprehend  the  needs  of  the  situation  cannot  be  doubted. 
On  no  other  basis  can  his  action  be  explained. 

It  was  none  the  less  a  grave  mistake,  as  Mr.  Seward 
could  not  fail  to  realize  when  he  read  the  president's  dig- 
nified reply.  It  is  one  of  the  finest  passages  in  Lincoln's 
career.  In  substance  he  said :  "The  people  have  called 
me  to  this  office,  and  it  is  for  me  to  meet  its  duties  and 
responsibilities.  I  could  not  transfer  them  to  another  if 
I  would.  I  shall  always  welcome  the  counsel  of  my  ad- 
visers, but  I  cannot  surrender  the  authority  the  people 
have  entrusted  to  me." 

The  simple  truth  is  that  neither  Mr.  Seward  nor  the 
other  members  of  the  cabinet  knew  the  president  at  this 
time.    Indeed,  it  may  be  said,  that  no  one  knew  him.    His 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   i860.         23 

old  friends  in  Illinois  who  had  traveled  the  circuits  with 
him,  and  met  him  in  the  trial  of  cases,  and  heard  him  on 
memorable  occasions,  fancied  they  knew  him.  Doubtless 
they  did  have  a  higher  conception  of  his  capacity  than 
those  who  made  his  acquaintance  after  he  entered  the 
White  House.     But  this  is  the  most  that  can  be  said. 

Many  who  visited  the  White  House  and  saw  the  presi- 
dent in  seasons  of  relaxation  when  he  was  seeking  relief 
from  care  and  anxiety  went  away  disappointed,  fearing 
that  he  did  not  realize  the  gravity  of  the  situation.  They 
did  not  know  him. 

He  was  so  unconventional,  so  modest,  so  simple  in  his 
manners,  so  distinctly  individual  that  he  was  not  compre- 
hended. His  latent  powers  were  veiled.  The  Lincoln  of 
history  as  we  know  him  now  was  not  yet  discovered  and 
could  not  be  by  a  flash-light  process.  "Time,"  said  Bishop 
Copplestone,  "is  no  agent."  True,  but  time  is  opportunity, 
and  in  that  expansive  word  whose  possibilities  have  never 
yet  been  fathomed,  is  found  the  golden  chain  which  con- 
nects the  Lincoln  of  the  Wigwam. — the  Lincoln  Judd  and 
Browning  knew — with  Lincoln  the  great  historic  figure. 

But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  he  was  subject 
to  the  same  rule  which  governs  all  men  who  have  diffi- 
culties to  surmount  and  a  goal  to  win.  He  could  only 
move  forward  a  step  at  a  time.  He  could  only  demon- 
strate his  capacity  by  meeting  the  dangers  and  difficulties 
of  the  situation  as  they  arose.  He  could  only  gain  the 
confidence  of  his  cabinet,  and  of  those  who  were  anx- 
iously awaiting  developments   from  day  to  day,  by  the 


24  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

display  of  superior  wisdom  and  sagacity.  But  the  day 
was  sure  to  come  when  Mr.  Seward  and  others  would 
estimate  him  at  his  worth.  It  did  come.  The  exigencies 
of  a  momentous  crisis  revealed  his  strength  of  character 
and  the  full  measure  of  his  resources,  and  those  who  had 
doubted  and  distrusted  came  to  honor  him  for  his  com- 
manding statesmanship  and  to  love  him  for  himself.  In 
the  fullness  of  time  his  clear  vision,  his  self  reliance,  his 
superior  wisdom,  his  capacity  to  deal  with  the  largest 
problems,  were  gladly  acknowledged  and  appreciated.  He 
manifested  a  capacity  which  overshadowed  his  great  sec- 
retaries, and  constrained  him  more  than  once  to  disregard 
their  counsel  in  the  exercise  of  his  own  safer  and  better 
judgment.  He  disclosed  a  grasp  of  the  situation  which 
books  could  not  supply  and  diplomas  could  not  assure. 
Not  book  wise — he  was  wiser  than  books.  Greatness  was 
not  thrust  upon  him ;  he  achieved  it. 

And  when  the  end  came,  and  the  white-winged  mes- 
sengers of  peace  were  fluttering  in  the  air,  and  the  old 
flag  was  again  streaming  proudly  from  every  battlement 
of  the  republic,  honored  and  respected  by  the  nations  of 
the  earth  as  it  had  never  been  before,  the  world  knew  that 
his  was  the  guiding  spirit  of  the  crisis  and  that  the  rescue 
of  the  government  from  deadly  peril  was  due,  under  God, 
to  him. 

That  Lincoln  stands  in  a  class  by  himself  cannot  be 
questioned.  He  differed  from  all  the  standards,  alike  in 
physical  and  mental  characteristics.  From  one  point  of 
view  he  seems  to  have  been  dominated  by  sentiment  and 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF    i860.         25 

sympathy :  from  another,  by  all  the  elements  of  virility. 
\\  ithout  the  learning  of  the  schools,  he  formulated  sen- 
tences and  paragraphs  which  have  been  assigned  a  place 
among  the  world's  choicest  classics.  In  repose  his  fea- 
tures were  grave  even  to  sadness,  but  no  one  had  a  keener 
sense  of  humor,  or  told  an  amusing  story  with  more  evi- 
dent relish;  to  study  him  is  a  fascination. 

It  were  difficult  to  find  in  the  whole  range  of  history 
an  instance  disclosing  more  striking  diversity  of  vicissi- 
tudes than  those  which  appear  in  the  life  of  Lincoln.  So 
circumscribed  was  the  sphere  of  his  activities  on  the  Indi- 
ana clearing  where  he  spent  his  boyhood,  so  limited  his 
opportunities,  that  he  never  saw  a  printing  press  until 
after  he  was  old  enough  to  vote.  But  this  was  long  before 
the  invention  of  the  power  press  of  our  time,  long  before 
the  newspaper  had  assumed  the  prominence  and  influence 
in  moulding  public  opinion  which  it  now  commands.  It 
was  when  the  Lincoln  family  was  migrating  from  the 
farm  at  Gentry ville  to  the  Sangamon  Valley  in  1830  in  a 
farm  wagon  drawn  by  four  oxen.  While  the  noon-day 
rest  was  being  taken  under  the  native  trees  at  the  little 
village,  now  city,  of  Vincennes,  the  young  man  sought  out 
the  office  where  the  local  paper  was  issued  every  Saturday 
morning,  and  there,  in  his  patched  and  faded  homespun. 
with  uncovered  head,  he  feasted  his  eyes  on  the  old  fash- 
ioned hand  printing  press  which  stood  before  him,  little 
dreaming  that  later  on  in  the  century  a  momentous  chap- 
ter was  to  be  written  on  the  pages  of  world  history  which 


26  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

should  lift  a  race  out  of  bondage  and  light  his  name  in 
fadeless  glory  down  the  ages. 

No  wonder  the  question  is  so  often  asked — What  were 
the  agencies  which  moulded  this  marvelous  man  into 
such  completeness  ?  It  is  difficult  to  say,  because  it  is  one 
of  nature's  secrets,  but  we  naturally  infer  that  his  early 
environment  must  shed  some  light  on  the  inquiry. 

It  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  from  his  childhood  until 
he  became  established  in  his  chosen  profession,  he  was 
constrained  to  face  and  to  surmount  obstacles  and  diffi- 
culties. It  was  his  fate  to  encounter  barriers  whichever 
way  he  turned.  He  had  no  knowledge  of  an  unclouded 
pathway.  He  was  never  free  from  the  spur  of  necessity. 
The  trials,  the  struggles,  the  hardships  of  a  frontier  ex- 
perience were  the  common  heritage  of  the  period.  Mani- 
festly, a  severe  school,  but  he  knew  no  other.  It  was, 
nevertheless,  the  school  for  character  building. 

May  we  not  assume  that  in  battling  with  these  adverse 
conditions  he  learned  the  need  of  fortitude,  of  courage, 
of  patience,  of  self-reliance  and  strength  of  purpose? 

May  we  not  also  indulge  the  belief  that  in  this  school 
and  in  his  daily  and  sympathetic  fellowship  with  the  plain 
people  were  evolved  those  engaging  traits  of  character 
and  personality  which  appeal  so  strongly  to  the  common 
heart  of  humanity,  and  illumine  the  whole  realm  of  his 
public  service?  He  was  pre-eminently  a  composite,  and 
it  is  only  by  blending  Lincoln,  the  man  of  sentiment  and 
sympathy,  with  Lincoln,  the  great  leader  and  master  of 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   i860.         27 

affairs,  that  we  gain  an  adequate  concept  of  the  secret 
of  his  fame. 

His  patience,  his  sagacity,  his  serenity  of  temper,  his 
courage,  his  faith  in  the  right,  his  abounding  charity,  his 
unerring  judgment,  these  and  other  qualities  we  cannot 
define,  entered  into  his  marvelous  equipment.  He  com- 
bined the  strength,  the  virility,  the  insight  of  a  great  and 
masterful  leader,  with  the  tenderness,  the  affection,  the 
sympathy,  the  sensibility  of  refined  and  honored  woman- 
hood— a  combination  so  rare  as  to  render  him  one  of  the 
most  unique  and  fascinating  personalities  of  all  time. 
Search  the  roll  of  great  historic  names  and  you  will  agree 
that  one,  one  only,  appeals  more  powerfully  to  the  uni- 
versal heart  of  humanity.  He,  too,  was  of  humble  origin, 
and  the  plain  people  with  whom  he  mingled  by  the  shores 
of  Galilee,  loved  him  as  they  loved  no  other.  If  to-day 
some  visitor  from  a  distant  clime,  unacquainted  with  our 
history,  were  to  inquire  among  the  plain  people  if  the 
action  of  the  convention  of  i860  was  vindicated  by  subse- 
quent events,  he  would  be  told  that  in  the  temple  of  fame, 
in  the  company  of  the  immortals,  he  would  find,  in  letters 
written  large,  the  name  of 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


By  John  Goadby  Gregory. 

Look  not  for  Lincoln's  name  in  scrolls 

Where  heralds  group  the  great ; 
His  sires  were  undistinguished  souls 

Who  won  few  smiles  from,  Fate. 
Where  blooms  our  West,  a  garden-plot. 

Their  wilderness  lay  wide. 
To  drudge  and  suffer  was  their  lot : 

They  struggled,  bred  and  died. 

Rude  labor  claimed  his  days.     At  night 

He  conquered  line  by  line 
Of  borrowed  books,  his  lamp  the  light 

From  blazing  knots  of  pine. 
Not  college-cramped,  on  Nature's  plan 

His  character  grew  whole — 
A  rugged,  honest,  earnest  man, 

With  thews  and  brain  and  soul. 

Called,  amid  ball  and  bayonet. 

The  nation's  chief  to  be. 
He  saved  the  Union,  and  set 

A  captive  people  free. 
Through  four  fierce  years,  with  peril  fraught. 

His  country's  life  he  blessed. 
Then  came  the  madman's  shot  that  brought 

His  toil-worn  spirit  rest. 


28 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 


By  George  Record  Peck. 
George  Washington  was  born  more  than  a  century 
and  a  half  ago  in  an  obscure  country  parish.  He  lived 
something  less  than  three  score  years  and  ten,  and  then 
his  dust  was  given  to  the  dust  of  his  native  Virginia. 
That  would,  indeed,  be  a  short  story — if  it  were  all.  But 
think  what  our  annals  would  be  if  they  did  not  contain 
the  name  of  George  Washington  !  It  is,  I  think,  entirely 
certain — so  curiously  do  events  hinge  one  upon  another — 
that  without  him  there  would  have  been  no  United  States. 
What  that  means,  you  may  ponder.  We  cannot  fathom 
the  methods  of  Providence,  but,  seeing  the  things  that  are, 
we  may  reason  and  guess  on  what  might  have  been.  The 
marvelous  career  which  has  made  us  unique  among  na- 
tions would,  without  him,  have  been  unaccomplished,  un- 
thought  and  unsung.  It  is  a  comely,  a  wise  and  a  fitting 
thing  to  think  of  him  today — and  every  day. 

But  I  have  sometimes  doubted  whether  the  present 
generation  is  very  sensible  of  the  influence  and  example 
of  Washington.  I  may  be  wrong — indeed,  1  hope  so — 
but  1  have  feared  that  they  are  not  now  what  they  were 
when  the  bloom  was  on  the  story  of  his  life.  Great  men 
recede  faster  than  the  years,  and  soon  cease  to  be  per- 
ceptible forces.  I  say  perceptible,  for  we  do  not  see  all. 
Il  is  a  consolation   to  believe  that,  seen  or  unseen,  other 

29 


30  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

lives  enter  ours,  and  are  felt  in  those  promptings  and  im- 
pulses which  guide  the  currents  of  human  effort.  No  age 
ever  comprehends  how  truly  it  is  the  product  of  other 
ages.  No  mind  ever  measures  its  obligation  to  other 
minds.  No  brooding  thinker  is  ever  conscious  how  all 
philosophies  have  made  him  their  heir,  and  have  mingled 
insensibly  in  his  loneliest  meditations.  We  grasp,  not 
heeding  its  worth,  the  prize  which  would  be  precious  be- 
yond all  our  imaginings  if  custom  had  not  staled  it  by 
making  it  common  and  familiar.  Who  thinks,  when  he 
uses  the  telephone,  how  Edison  and  Bell  toiled  sleeplessly 
to  make  nerve  and  wire  the  ministers  of  intelligence?  We 
hardly  know  who  it  was  that  wooed  nature  to  reveal  the 
secret  of  anesthetics,  and  tell  how  pain  may  be  banished 
and  suffering  turned  to  joy.  It  is  the  way  of  the  world. 
We  take  what  is  given,  and  pass  on.  It  is  thus  we  breathe 
the  air  of  freedom.  It  is  thus  we  enjoy  the  liberties 
which  have  descended  from  the  fathers.  It  is  thus  we 
claim,  as  immemorial  rights,  those  great  immunities  for 
which  in  other  days  men  gave  their  blood  to  the  utter- 
most. Let  us  not  make  the  mistake  which  learning  some- 
times makes,  of  forgetting  how  little  we  have  won  for 
ourselves,  and  how  much  has  come  to  us,  borne  on  the 
noiseless  stream  of  years.  Long  before  we  were  born, 
there  were  anxious  thoughts ;  hopes  that  never  could  be 
told,  and  consecrations  to  things  that  are  not  for  a  day. 
We  must  not  worship  the  past.  Men  had  then,  as  now, 
the  selfish  instinct  for  individual  advantage.  It  is  the 
inveterate  habit  of  mankind.     History,  you  may  be  well 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  31 

assured,  has  been  very  human  from  the  first ;  and  yet,  out 
of  the  past,  in  a  path  fringed  all  too  seldom  with  prim- 
roses, we  have  come  to  this  hour.  Let  us  be  wise,  and 
take  counsel  of  the  worthies  that  once  were,  while  we 
study  the  things  that  now  are.  Life,  death  and  time  are 
mysteries;  yet  here  we  find  ourselves  struggling,  as  all 
the  world  has  struggled,  with  problems  which  vex  with 
relentless  questionings.  The  best  we  can  do — possibly  all 
we  can  do — is  to  gather  up  the  memories  of  good  men's 
lives,  of  brave,  heroic  deeds,  and  of  achievements  that 
have  made  the  world  happier,  or  freer,  or  better. 

In  every  list  of  such  names,  George  Washington  ap- 
pears almost  first.  There  he  will  remain  forever.  But 
let  us  inquire  what  he  was.  and  what  he  will  be,  in  the 
years  that  are  to  come.  He  was  not  of  this  day  nor  of 
this  century,  and  we  see  him  only  in  perspective.  Abraham 
Lincoln  is  ours  by  the  sure  title  of  personal  love.  We 
have  had  him  for  a  friend  in  sad  and  happy  days.  He 
is  kin  to  us  by  ties  such  as  no  other  man  ever  established 
with  his  countrymen.  All  the  world  knows  him  now,  as 
one  sang  who  loved  him  well : 

"For  the  sweetest,  wisest  soul  of  all  my  days." 

But  Washington  is  far  away,  and  our  affection  for 
him  is  formal  and  regular.  When  we  think  of  him,  there 
comes  a  vision  of  a  being,  cold,  reserved,  stately  and 
austere,  the  very  embodiment  of  awe  and  majesty.  There 
he  is,  on  high  Olympus,  up  where  the  ice  gathers  at  night- 
fall, and  where  the  birds  never  dare  to  sing.  But,  never- 
theless, men  are  men.       Washington  and   Lincoln,  who 


32  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

seem  so  different  and  who  really  were  so  different,  had 
many  points  of  resemblance.  Both  were  frontiersmen ; 
both  fought  in  Indian  wars ;  both  marched  forward  from 
small  things  to  great,  in  brave  reliance  upon  the  sanctions 
of  duty,  and  each,  in  the  appointed  way  and  at  the  ap- 
pointed time,  led  his  country  through  darkness  to  light. 
History  will  never  name  them  as  rivals,  but  will  give  to 
both  the  laurel  which  is  reserved  for  the  immortals. 

Let  me  tell  you  what  Washington  really  was,  as  I  find 
him  in  books  and  in  tradition. 

First  of  all,  he  was  a  great  man.  It  has  been  some- 
what  the  fashion  in  recent  years  to  disparage  his  ability 
and  to  represent  him  as  a  very  respectable  Virginia  gen- 
tleman, of  high  character  and  unblemished  reputation,  but 
of  rather  slender  mental  endowment.  I  trust  it  is  no  dis- 
grace to  be  respectable,  and  I  am  glad  be  was  a  man  of 
high  character  and  of  stainless  honor.  The  world  is  not 
in  danger  of  having  too  many  such.  But  notwithstanding 
his  respectability  and  his  unblemished  life,  George  Wash- 
ington, measured  by  every  test,  was  a  great,  a  very  great 
man.  The  literature  of  the  world  is  so  full  of  babbling 
about  such  things  that  I  must  tell  you  what  1  mean  when 
I  call  Washington  great.  Genius  is  a  much  used  word, 
and  all  forms  of  intellectual  eccentricity  and  aberration 
are  counted  among  its  proofs.  But  I  hope  you  have  not 
fallen  into  so  poor  and  vulgar  an  error.  I  pray  you  re- 
member— for  some  day  it  will  be  useful  for  you  to  know 
it— that  the  first  attribute  of  genius  is  absolute  sanity.  It 
manifests  itself,  as  Charles  Lamb  has  so  truly  said,  "in 


GEORGE  U7ASHINGTON.  33 

the  admirable  balance  of  all  the  faculties."  It  is  serene, 
as  the  Pyramids  and  the  Alps  are  serene,  because  it  is 
based,  as  they  are,  on  a  foundation  which  cannot  be 
moved.  George  Washington  was  pre-eminently  sane. 
There  was  a  depth  and  clearness  in  his  mental  faculties 
which  made  them  less  conspicuous  than  those  of  men  a 
thousand  times  his  inferior.  After  all,  it  is  not  the  flutter 
of  sparrows  in  a  thicket,  but  the  steadfast  wings  of  birds 
of  flight  that  reveal  true  strength. 

The  career  of  Washington  naturally  divides  itself  into 
two  sides ;  the  military  and  the  civil — war  and  peace. 
But  he  was  the  same  in  both;  always  lofty,  always  com- 
manding, always  sensible.  He  was  little  trained  in 
schools,  but  has  it  not  occurred  to  you  that  some  of  the 
world's  greatest  leaders  have  lacked  the  advantage  of  a 
collegiate  education?  The  vesture  that  men  wear  does 
not  always  determine  what  they  may,  or  can,  or  will  do. 
No  one  can  believe  more  absolutely  than  I,  that  colleges 
and  universities  upbuild  and  strengthen  human  character. 
Education  can  transform  clay  into  marble,  and  change  the 
crude  aspirations  of  a  farmer's  boy  into  the  finished  type 
of  a  man  who  really  knows.  But  Washington  had  no 
degree.  The  mountain  path,  the  surveyor's  chain  that 
measured  from  settlement  to  settlement,  the  rifle  and  the 
hospitable  good  cheer  of  the  Virginia  back-woodsmen, 
were  his  education.  Whatever  aristocratic  tastes  he  had 
were  only  such  as  rest  upon  that  most  unstable  founda- 
tion— family  pride.  He  was  descended  from  the  Cav- 
aliers, and   from  a  family  of  soldiers,  but  I  have  never 


34  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

read  that  he  counted  much  on  that.  He  was  richly  en- 
dowed with  what  Tennyson  calls  "saving  common  sense." 
It  saved  him  in  many  a  close  encounter;  it  saved  us  too. 
If  he  did  not  belong  to  that  small  column  of  consummate 
commanders  which  includes  Caesar,  Napoleon,  Cromwell 
and  Grant,  he  was  the  equal  of  Frederick  and  the 
superior  of  Wellington. 

What  are  the  essential  qualities  of  military  greatness? 
Skill,  patience,  faith.  These  he  had,  and  had  them  un- 
failingly. Tradition  still  points  out  the  elm  tree  in 
Cambridge  under  which  he  took  command  of  an  army  of 
ploughmen  and  villagers,  some  of  whom  only  a  few 
months  before  had  blazed  up  in  angry  defiance  at  a  British 
invasion  of  their  neighborhood.  The  world  had  heard 
the  shot  they  fired,  and  had  marveled  when  they  stood  on 
Bunker's  Hill  and  fought  through  that  long  June  after- 
noon, like  veterans  tried  and  true.  But  yet,  they  were 
only  a  loosely  organized,  undisciplined,  uninstructed  mass 
when,  a  fortnight  later,  Washington  came  to  be  their 
leader.  If  you  doubt  his  right  to  be  named  great,  read  of 
the  siege  of  Boston,  the  seizure  of  Dorchester  Heights, 
and  how  the  British  fleet  and  army  sailed  away  from  the 
presence  of  a  half-clad,  half-armed,  half-starved  Con- 
tinental army,  and  you  will  doubt  no  more.  For  steady 
watchfulness — the  picket  duty  courage  that  does  not  sleep 
— for  quickness  to  detect  the  best  laid  plans  of  the  enemy, 
for  inflexible  faith,  which,  like  the  Cameron  in  the  Scot- 
tish song,  "never  can  yield,"  George  Washington  stands 
almost  without  an  equal.     Desperate  emergencies  came  to 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  35 

him,  and  he  met  them  quickly  and  resolutely,  but  always 
calmly  as  becomes  a  Man.  The  campaigns  in  the  Jerseys, 
the  long,  weary  watch  on  the  Hudson,  and  the  last  act  of 
the  drama,  when  he  shot  like  a  thunderbolt  from  the  high- 
lands above  New  York  to  fall  upon  Cornwallis  at  York- 
town,  are  lessons  which  students  of  the  art  of  war  cannot 
study  too  much.  The  curtain  fell  upon  a  scene  in  which 
George  Washington  was  the  central  and  heroic  figure. 
Only  men  of  the  first  order  do  such  things. 

Secondly,  he  was  a  good  man.  And  is  not  that  better 
than  to  be  crowned  with  any  wreath  that  mere  intellectual 
qualities  can  win  ?  Just,  fair,  honest,  truthful — all  men 
grant  him  these.  They  are  homely  virtues,  but  they  are — 
as  Shakespeare  makes  the  beautiful,  wise,  Portia  say  of 
another  human  virtue — "mightiest  in  the  mightiest."  It 
is  not  much  to  our  credit  that  some  people  have  lowered 
their  estimate  of  Washington's  intellectual  character, 
simply  because  of  his  moral  altitude.  They  have  thought 
— and  it  is  a  shame  to  say  it — that  a  man  so  unblemished, 
so  high  in  honor,  and  in  honesty,  must  have  been  of 
mediocre  ability.  Alas!  for  the  day  when  such  conclu- 
sions can  come,  and  alas !  for  those  who  accept  them.  It 
is  of  little  consequence  to  him ;  because  history  always 
comes  right  at  last.  But  it  is  of  grave  import  to  us,  and  I 
bid  you  take  heed  that  you  do  not  fall  into  so  miserable  a 
delusion. 

Thirdly,  he  was  a  brave  man.  It  is  true,  courage  is 
common,  and  I  sometimes  think  most  common  in  common 
men.     Generals  have  it,  but  so  also  do  corporals.     This 


36  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

would  be  a  poor  world  if  we  did  not  love  it.  I  hope  the 
time  will  never  come  when  we  shall  not  delight  to  read  the 
story  of  the  Cid,  and  of  Arthur,  and  of  Richard  of  the 
Lion  Heart.  Washington  was.  no  doubt,  a  different  type 
of  man  from  these  heroes  of  fable  and  tradition,  for  his 
courage  was  self-poised  and  calm,  as  was  his  nature  in  all 
ways.  But  it  had,  in  the  highest  sense,  the  real  quality 
which  is  alike  in  all  heroic  natures. 

When  an  officer  remonstrated  with  him  for  exposing 
himself  to  the  enemy's  shot  and  shell,  he  only  said :  "You 
are  at  liberty  to  retire."  That  answer  was  not,  perhaps, 
like  Napoleon,  but  it  was  better — it  was  like  Washington. 
It  was  the  unique  spirit  speaking  after  its  fashion,  and 
meaning  only  this  ;  that  however  and  whatever  fate  might 
strike,  the  duty  then  visible  must  be  done.  But  physical 
courage,  the  story  of  which  sets  our  hearts  aflame,  is  not 
the  greatest  courage.  All  the  world,  at  least  all  the  civil- 
ized world,  recognizes  this  ;  for  we  excuse  those  who  falter 
in  the  presence  of  moral  danger,  knowing  how  hard  it  is 
to  stand  upright  before  it ;  but  nobody  forgives  a  physical 
coward.  Washington,  who  was  the  best  balanced  man  in 
our  history,  had  moral  and  physical  courage  in  a  perfect 
equipoise.  On  or  off  the  field  of  battle,  he  dared  to  do 
what,  at  any  instant,  seemed  right. 

When  the  war  was  ended  and  the  miracle  of  deliver- 
ance was  accomplished  it  would  have  been  easy  to  say,  "I 
must  rest."  Who  could  have  blamed  him?  Had  he  not 
given  seven  years  to  the  cause  ? — harder  years  than  Jacob 
gave  for  Rachel.     His  arm  had  held  the  wavering  col- 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  37 

onies  together;  and  his  brave  heart  had  led  the  way  to 
victory  and  peace.  Here,  I  think,  the  career  of  Wash- 
ington reaches  a  high,  a  sublime  elevation.  Before  he 
had  fairly  begun  to  breathe  again  the  air  of  Mount 
Vernon  the  clouds  darkened  and  the  critical  period  came 
on,  of  which  John  Fiske  has  given  us  so  noble  a  sketch. 
The  lotus  is  sweet  to  those  who  have  toiled.  In  the  quiet 
afternoons  it  is  pleasant  to  think  of  dangers  past  and  to 
take  comfort  in  the  thought  that  there  will  be  no  more 
strife,  but  only  "dreamful  ease."  History  has  told  how 
Washington  withstood  the  temptation,  if,  indeed,  it  were 
a  temptation  to  such  a  nature. 

There  were  doubters  and  dreamers  then,  as  there  are 
now,  and  will  forever  be.  They  had  their  say,  but  no 
great  problem  is  ever  solved  by  them.  The  confederation, 
which  had  been  weak  from  the  start,  was  falling  to  pieces 
when  the  stress  and  pressure  of  war  had  passed.  Wise 
men  saw  that  the  victory  they  had  won  was  only  a  delu- 
sive triumph  if  the  colonies  could  not  maintain  themselves 
as  a  nation  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  There  was 
but  one  guaranty  of  independence,  and  that  was  unity ;  a 
government  of  the  people  instead  of  states ;  a  high  com- 
manding authority,  supreme,  pervasive  and  direct.  But 
these  truths,  now  so  plain,  were  apprehended  then  only  by 
sane  and  sensible  men.  The  brilliant  theorists,  the  orators 
and  the  agitators  saw  only  clouds  beyond  clouds  and  no 
ray  of  hope  in  all  the  sky.  It  is  interesting  to  read  how 
they  declaimed  and  how  philosophical  statesmen  pointed 
out  the  certain  ruin  that  would  come  to  the  people's  liber- 


38  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

ties  if  they  surrendered  the  right  to  be  many  and  con- 
sented to  become  one.  It  was  then  that  Washington — 
greater  than  at  Yorktown — gave  his  name  and  his  char- 
acter for  a  perpetual,  indissoluble  union.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  if  he  had  opposed  a  constitutional  government, 
or  even  if  he  had  been  lukewarm,  it  would  have  failed. 
Others  advocated  it  with  patriotic  devotion,  but  it  abso- 
lutely required  his  calm,  steadfast  support — and  received 
it.  Again  the  sanity  of  true  genius  was  illustrated. 
While  others  were  predicting  many  woes  if  the  bauble  of 
local  sovereignty  were  given  up,  the  clear,  calm  gaze  of 
Washington  saw  that  only  by  a  strong,  commanding  gov- 
ernment, free,  united  and  puissant,  could  liberty  keep  any 
semblance  of  life  on  this  continent.  The  final  test  of 
statesmanship  must  ever  be  the  judgment  of  future  gen- 
erations ;  and  of  constructive  statesmanship,  which  is  the 
molding  together  of  peoples,  communities  and  states  into 
a  national  sovereignty — this  final  test  is  really  the  only 
one.  Ships  had  been  known  to  struggle  bravely  through 
perilous  seas  to  break  in  pieces  on  the  welcoming  strand. 
That  was  the  fate  which  imminently  threatened  the  col- 
onies. From  it  we  were  saved,  not  by  Washington  alone, 
but  by  him  and  the  wise  men  who  stood  by  his  side  for 
law,  for  order  and  for  a  government  capable  of  securing 
both.     This  is  his  crowning  glory. 

It  cannot  be  truly  said  that  Washington  led  in  the 
great  struggle  for  the  constitution;  but  only  this,  that 
without  him  no  man  could  have  led,  successfully.  If  he 
were  not  first,  surely  no  one  will  ever  call  him  second. 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  39 

There  was  Hamilton,  his  young  friend  and  former  aide, 
the  most  gifted  and  versatile  statesman  this  country  has 
known.  There  was  Madison,  also  a  Virginian,  and  like 
himself,  of  a  calm,  equal  temperament,  a  marvel  in  the 
gift  of  lucid  reasoning — afterwards  well  named  "The 
Father  of  the  Constitution."  There  was  Franklin,  printer, 
statesman,  sage,  philosopher,  who  anticipated  the  dis- 
coveries of  science,  and  "wrung  from  the  heart  of  the 
lightning  the  secret  of  the  gods."  Many  others  there  were 
who  had  the  wisdom  to  firmly  stand  in  the  midst  of  the 
noise  and  clamor  of  the  times.  But  all  of  them,  all  to  the 
very  last,  were  powerless  without  him ;  and  if  he  had  cast 
the  weight  of  his  little  finger  against  them,  the  scheme  of 
a  stable  government  would  have  failed  utterly.  And  with 
that  failure  would  have  disappeared  the  hope  of  anything 
like  liberty  in  the  western  world. 

The  constitution  was  not  all  for  which  Washington 
strove.  It  was  not  perfect  then,  and  I  fear  it  is  not  per- 
fect now  ;  but  it  is  worth  your  love  and  if  need  be,  all  else 
that  you  have  on  this  earth.  It  is,  as  Gladstone  said  of  it, 
the  greatest  piece  of  constructive  statesmanship  the  world 
has  seen.  It  is  the  everlasting  proof  that  true  genius  is 
sensible  and  sane. 

Naturally,  he  became  the  first  President  of  the  New 
Nation.  He  had  helped,  more  than  any  other,  to  build 
the  ship,  why  should  he  not  "keep  the  rudder  true"  as  she 
put  out  to  sea?  It  needed  such  a  pilot;  and  found  in  his 
firm  hand  the  touch  of  one  who  never  failed  in  storm  or 
calm.     He  was  a  good  President,  at  a  time  when  a  bad 


40  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

one,  or  a  foolish  one,  would  have  ruined  the  experiment 
of  constitutional  government. 

When  Bolingbrooke  gave  us  the  familiar  maxim, 
"History  is  philosophy  teaching  by  example,"  he  only 
quoted  from  one  classic  authority  who  had  copied  from 
another.  But  the  truth  of  it  is  not  less  but  more  plain 
from  its  antiquity.  Great  men  serve  two  purposes.  First, 
they  actually  do,  while  living,  and,  secondly,  they  teach 
after  they  are  gone.  In  which  respect  they  accomplish 
more,  is  not  for  me  to  say.  I  am  coming  back — for  how 
can  I  help  it? — to  the  doubt  expressed  at  the  beginning: 
How  much  do  the  example  and  influence  of  Washington 
affect  us  as  American  citizens?  What  would  we  do  if 
ease  and  comfort  and  safety  pointed  one  way  and  duty 
another?  Dare  we  challenge  authority  as  he  did  when  he 
belted  on  his  sword  against  the  British  Crown  ?  That  is 
one  question ;  but  a  greater  and  far  more  solemn  one  is : 
Dare  we  stand  immovable  against  those  who  believe  that 
nothing  is  true  except  that  which  has  never  been  tried  ? 
As  I  understand  the  example  of  Washington,  it  means 
that  not  crowns,  nor  traditions,  nor  laws,  can  consecrate 
what  is  plainly  wrong;  but  it  means  still  more,  that  doc- 
trines and  theories  are  not  necessarily  true  because  they 
were  born  yesterday.  It  is  infinitely  easier  for  some 
minds  to  fall  in  with  the  new  than  to  defend  what  is  old. 
But  in  Washington  there  was  a  superb  blending  of  the 
radical  and  the  conservative.  He  separated  from  his 
friend  and  neighbor.  Lord  Fairfax,  to  cast  his  lot  with  the 
rebellion  of  the  colonies,  but  after  the  war,  in  that  sad. 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON.  41 

critical  period,  he  bravely  turned  his  back  on  the  col- 
leagues from  his  own  Virginia  when  he  supported  and 
signed  the  constitution  which  they  opposed.  Time  has 
vindicated  his  good  sense,  and  his  calm  reliance  on  an  un- 
derstanding which  seldom  failed  in  being  right  and  never 
failed  in  being  sound  and  rational. 

I  wish  we  might  all  study  the  character  and  the  career 
of  Washington.  There  has  been  no  time  in  our  history 
when  we  have  more  needed  to  know  him  for  what  he 
really  was.  We  may,  indeed,  fail  in  trying  to  shape  our 
lives  on  such  a  model,  but  it  would  be  a  glorious  thing  to 
try.  He  led  a  revolution,  and  revolutions  are  now  prom- 
ised almost  every  day.  Nothing  is  perfect  in  this  world, 
and  it  will  be  well  for  us  to  remember  that  not  all  who 
cry  out  have  been  dedicated.  Ever  more  there  will  be 
wrongs  to  be  righted,  but  those  who  are  to  right  them 
must  be  truly  called  to  the  work.  The  professional  revo- 
lutionist, the  agitator  who  has  no  real  conception  of  what 
he  is  agitating,  can  never,  for  any  long  period,  engage  the 
world's  attention. 

It  has  always  been  true,  and  it  always  will  be  true,  that 
men  of  tranquil  mind,  "of  large  discourse  looking  before 
and  after,"  are  those  who  really  shape  and  control  human 
destinies.  Poetry  is  wiser  than  philosophy,  or  rather  I 
should  say,  it  is  philosophy  expanded  and  enlarged. 
Bacon,  in  all  his  works,  never  uttered  a  more  profound 
truth  than  Wordsworth  did  in  a  single  line  of  Laodamia : 

"The  Gods  approve  the  depth,  and  not  the  tumult  of  the 
soul." 


42  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

What  a  lesson  to  us  all.  It  is  a  warning  to  light 
minds,  but  it  is  also  a  consolation  to  those  who  are  not 
easily  moved  from  the  basis  of  substantial  things.  Let 
us  think  of  the  depths  and  not  be  perturbed  by  the  shal- 
lows. George  Washington  in  all  his  great  career — soldier, 
statesman,  almost  king — moved  right  on,  fearing  nothing 
because  he  had  nothing  to  fear.  What  is  Washington 
to  us  ?  Nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  unless  we  think.  He 
influences  no  man  who  is  not  strong  enough  to  be  himself 
unto  himself.  In  a  deep  sense  his  career  signifies  union, 
nationality  and  the  majesty  of  people  governing  them- 
selves. If  we  would  truly  comprehend  it,  we  must  move 
in  a  clearer  air  than  we  habitually  breathe.  As  John 
Morley,  the  great  English  statesman  and  scholar,  has  said : 
"Our  day  of  small  calculations  and  petty  utilities  must 
first  pass  away ;  our  vision  of  the  true  expediencies  must 
reach  further  and  deeper ;  our  resolution  to  search  for  the 
highest  verities,  to  give  up  all  and  follow  them,  must  first 
become  the  supreme  part  of  ourselves." 

When  that  hour  comes,  this  Nation  will  see  and  know, 
as  never  before,  how  beautiful  a  thing  it  is  to  remember 
the  name  of  George  Washington. 


MEMORY. 


By  Gerry  W.  Hazelton. 

Speaking  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  the  distinguished 
barrister  and  statesman,  Robert  Hall  said,  "his  memory 
retains  every  thing;  his  mind  is  a  spacious  repository 
hung  round  with  beautiful  images;  and  when  he  wants 
one  he  has  nothing  to  do  but  reach  up  his  hand  to  a  peg 
and  take  it  down.  But  his  images  were  not  manufactured 
in  his  mind ;  they  were  imported."  A  very  significant 
tribute  this,  to  the  importance  and  value  of  memory.  Sir 
James,  as  Coleridge  said,  was  not  a  genius,  but  his  ca- 
pacious memory  gave  him  an  immense  advantage  in  the 
field  where  reputation  for  intellectual  eminence  is  won. 
With  reasoning  powers  hardly  above  many  of  his  con- 
temporaries, he  achieved  distinction  at  the  bar,  on  the 
platform  and  in  the  House  of  Commons.  It  will  not  be 
inferred  that  memory  is  a  substitute  for  intellect,  but  an 
invaluable  auxiliary.  I  once  knew  a  tailor,  English  born 
and  English  bred,  who  was  so  familiar  with  all  the  details 
of  English  history  from  the  days  of  William  the  Norman 
as  to  excite  amazement.  It  was  a  pleasure  to  hear  him 
converse.  His  memory  was  a  store-house  of  historic  data 
but  lie  never  got  above  the  tailor's  bench.  He  lacked  the 
capacity  to  utilize  a  gift  which  might  otherwise  have  been 
of  incalculable  advantage.  When  I  last  knew  him  he  was 
busy  with  his  needle  and  contented  with  his  lot. 

43 


44  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

What  is  this  faculty  we  call  the  memory?  We  consult 
Webster's  unabridged,  and  learn  that  it  is  "the  faculty  of 
the  mind  by  which  it  retains  knowledge  of  past  events." 
This  doubtless  accords  with  the  popular  understanding 
but  is  it  an  adequate  definition?  Is  it  simply  the  reposi- 
tory of  such  knowledge?  Sir  William  Hamilton's  defi- 
nition is  more  accurate.  He  calls  it  "the  conservative 
faculty  of  the  mind  denoting  its  power  of  retaining  its 
hold  of  the  knowledge  it  has  acquired."  It  is  unques- 
tionably a  conservative  faculty,  but  neither  of  these  defi- 
nitions answers  the  more  interesting  inquiry,  does  this 
faculty  represent  the  constitutional  capacity  of  the  mind 
for  expansion  ?  Does  it  explain  the  law  of  mental  growth  ? 
Is  it  a  mere  store-house  in  which  knowledge  is  carried 
for  convenience  while;  we  are  journeying,  as  the  traveler 
carries  luggage,  in  a  separate  car?  I  can  think  of  mem- 
ory only  as  the  common  servant  of  the  mind  contributing 
of  its  stores  to  the  development  of  all  our  intellectual 
powers  and  its  possessions  as  a  constituent  of  our  indi- 
viduality— as  part  and  parcel  of  our  selves.  In  my  view 
it  represents  the  law  of  intellectual  and  moral  expansion 
and  finds  expression  in  the  difference  between  the  child 
in  the  nursery  and  the  person  of  mature  years. 

If  it  were  possible  for  us  to  imagine  ourselves  for  the 
the  moment  absolutely  bereft  of  memory  we  should  dis- 
cover that  the  brightest  intellect  would  be  as  helpless  as 
the  dullest.  We  would  not  know  we  had  ever  seen  each 
other  before.  All  the  knowledge  accumulated  in  the  daily 
round  of  experience  as  well  as  that  acquired  by  years  of 


MEMORY.  45 

study  and  reflection  would  have  disappeared.  Not  only 
would  the  past  be  a  blank,  but  our  minds  would  be  a 
blank.  We  could  have  no  communication  because  we 
should  retain  no  knowledge  of  language.  Hence  it  would 
seem  that  every  fiber  of  our  intellectual  power  draws  sup- 
port from  the  resources  and  contributions  of  memory. 

Ours  is  an  age  of  study  and  investigation.  It  is  there- 
fore an  age  in  which  memory  is  being  stored  from  wider 
and  more  varied  fields  than  ever  before  and  while  this 
circumstance  may  broaden  our  knowledge,  it  is  too  early 
to  speculate  on  ultimate  results. 

Without  underrating  in  any  respect  the  value  of  the 
schools  we  are  able  to  recall  a  host  of  names  from  the 
Hebrew  statesmen  down  to  our  own  times  who  have  won 
a  place  in  the  ranks  of  the  immortals  without  the  advan- 
tages of  liberal  education.  They  developed  ability  for 
leadership  in  some  of  the  most  important  exigencies  of 
history  in  ways  we  cannot  comprehend. 

The  shepherd  king  of  Judea  has  always  seemed  to  me 
to  be  one  of  the  most  remarkable  characters  of  his  age 
or  any  age.  His  early  years  spent  in  tending  his  father's 
flocks  on  the  hillsides  of  his  native  land,  without  the  aid 
of  schools,  without  books  to  read,  without  the  advantage 
of  cultured  associates,  he  stands  out  in  bold  and  distinct 
outline  as  a  great  historic  figure.  That  he  was  a  sa- 
gacious statesman,  a  wise  ruler,  an  illustrious  king,  no 
one  questions;  that  he  was  capable  of  inspiring  the  most 
loyal  and  devoted  friendships  is  equally  clear ;  but  it  is 
only  just  to  say  that  his  eminence  as  a  civilian  was  over- 


46  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

shadowed  and  dimmed  by  his  greater  eminence  as  a 
writer.  His  exalted  place  in  the  world's  esteem  rests  al- 
most solely  on  his  achievement  as  an  author.  The  high- 
est reach  of  devotional  expression  is  found  in  the  Psalms 
he  formulated.  No  writer  of  modern  times  with  all  the 
advantages  of  exhaustive  culture  has  been  able  to  ap- 
proach his  standard.  His  name  is  a  household  word  in 
every  enlightened  community  the  world  over,  and  no 
library  is  complete  which  does  not  contain  his  writings. 
They  are  as  fresh  and  inspiring  today  as  they  were  three 
thousand  years  ago.  He  stands  easily  at  the  head  of 
all  writers  of  devotional  literature.  Are  we  able  to  ex- 
plain him  on  any  of  the  theories  with  which  we  are 
familiar? 

Who  shall  venture  to  tell  us  when  or  how  Washing- 
ton acquired  those  masterful  qualities  which  inspired 
absolute  confidence  and  won  for  him  the  proud  title  of 
father  of  his  country?  He  was  surrounded  by  a  bril- 
liant galaxy  of  great  and  learned  men,  all  of  whom  ac- 
cepted him  as  their  leader,  and  history  has  assigned  him 
a  corresponding  niche  in  the  halls  of  fame. 

We  speak  of  Lincoln's  early  trials  and  hardships  and 
his  association  with  the  plain  people,  of  his  success  at 
the  bar  and  on  the  platform,  and  fancy  we  have  solved 
the  mystery  of  his  character  and  power,  but  can  we  in- 
dulge the  assurance  that  we  have  made  no  mistake  ?  Here 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  characters  in  history;  so 
distinct,  so  unique  that  we  can  find  no  other  to  compare 
him  with.     Not  one  indeed  on  whom  every  god  did  seem 


MEMORY.  47 

to  set  his  seal  but  singularly  devoid  of  the  gifts  and  graces 
which  attract  attention  and  excite  interest.  He  was  the 
rarest  composite  of  strength  and  tenderness  to  be  found 
among  men.  He  conquered  prejudice  by  his  wisdom,  his 
sweetness  and  his  forbearance.  Associated  with  men  of 
the  broadest  experience  and  the  amplest  culture  in  the 
conduct  of  the  government,  his  superior  foresight  and 
wisdom  became  so  manifest  that  at  the  close  of  the  war 
no  one  questioned  that  his  was  the  guiding  spirit  of  the 
crisis.  Without  the  advantage  of  liberal  culture  he  formu- 
lated papers  and  paragraphs  and  sentences  which  are 
ranked  with  the  choicest  examples  of  classic  literature. 
He  put  the  masters  of  sophistry  to  flight  by  the  aptness 
of  his  illustrations  and  the  cogency  of  his  conclusions. 
He  so  tempered  his  judgments  with  charity  as  to  disarm 
just  criticism.  He  resisted  the  appeals  of  impetuous 
friends  and  the  suggestions  of  weak  and  timid  allies  with 
the  same  patient  firmness.  The  bitter  and  malevolent 
assaults  of  enemies  never  disturbed  the  serenity  of  his 
temper,  or  prompted  an  unkind  or  impatient  retort.  He 
exemplified  all  the  elements  of  masterful  leadership, 
without  one  trace  of  personal  or  selfish  ambition.  He 
won  a  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  which  the  passing 
years  have  only  intensified,  and  left  an  impress  on  his 
age  which  must  remain  an  inspiration  and  an  object- 
lesson  for  all  coming  time. 

There  may  be  those  who  fancy  they  can  explain  him ; 
if  so,  the  task  is  in  their  hands.    To  me  he  is  an  unsolved 


48  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

mystery ;  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  I  prefer  to 
believe  that  the  same  marvelous  agency  which 

"Warms  in  the  sun,  refreshes  in  the  breeze, 
Glows  in  the  stars  and  blossoms  in  the  trees," 

raises  up  and  equips  men  for  the  great  emergencies  which 
mark  the  progress  of  human  events  by  processes  we  can- 
not define  or  comprehend. 

That  we  may  trace  in  his  career  the  influences  which 
aided  in  developing  his  individuality  is  not  doubted,  but 
the  elements  of  greatness  which  single  him  out  from  all 
others  and  assign  him  a  distinct  and  preeminent  place  in 
history  remain  unexplained.  It  is  not  difficult  for  those 
who  have  studied  history  to  understand  the  meaning  of 
Lowell's   lines, 

"Behind  the  dim   unknown 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow 
Keeping  watch  above  his  own." 

Before  passing  I  pause  for  a  moment  to  deprecate  the 
spirit  which  would  prompt  one  for  gain  to  deliberately 
engage  in  the  task  of  impairing  the  fair  fame  of  great 
men.  It  dishonors  authorship.  We  sometimes  criticise 
the  biographer  who  indulges  only  in  extravagant  and  in- 
discriminate praise,  but  we  will  all  agree  that  he  occupies 
a  plane  immeasurably  above  the  writer  who  would  weaken 
our  admiration  for  a  great  historic  character  whose  life 
has  been  devoted  to  the  honor  and  welfare  of  his  country. 
The  good  name  of  such  men  is  the  nation's  richest  heri- 
tage. The  older  nations  of  the  earth  crowd  their  marts 
with  the  statues  of  their  great  men  as  a  stimulus  to  rising 


MEMORY.  49 

generations.  Their  example  is  an  inspiration.  What 
apology  can  be  made  for  the  author  who  lends  himself 
to  the  task  of  dethroning  onr  ideals  and  having  us  infer 
that  the  real  Washington,  the  real  Jefferson,  the  real 
Hamilton,  the  real  Lincoln  are  less  worthy  of  homage  and 
gratitude  than  we  have  been  taught  to  believe.  Why  not 
leave  us  to  enjoy  and  profit  by  the  contemplation  of  lofty 
ideals?  Why  impair  and  weaken  the  uplifting  influence 
of  great  and  grand  achievement?  Hero-worship,  God- 
worship  spring  from  the  same  fountain  and  the  world 
cannot  have  too  much  of  it. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  there  are  peculiarities  of 
memory  which  excite  our  wonder  but  hardly  allow  of 
classification.  Many  cases  in  point  are  cited  by  learned 
writers.  Some  persons  are  able  to  remember  and  repeat 
pages  of  prose  from  a  single  reading;  some  affect  poetry 
and  recite  poems  with  equal  facility ;  some  remember 
faces  with  astonishing  accuracy.  It  was  said  that  Na- 
poleon knew  the  faces  of  all  his  soldiers,  and  the  same 
ability  has  been  attributed  to  other  great  military  cap- 
tains. It  used  to  be  said  of  Henry  Clay  that  he  never  for- 
got a  face  he  had  once  seen,  and  the  same  remarkable 
gift  was  claimed  for  Mr.  I  Elaine.  But  these  are  all  exag- 
gerations having  just  sufficient  basis  to  explain  the  sweep- 
ing allegations.  Mr.  Weed  records  an  incident  in  the  visit 
of  LaFayette  to  this  country  in  1824  which  may  properly 
be  cited  in  this  connection.  The  General  and  a  party  of 
friends  were  sailing  up  the  Hudson  in  a  slow-moving 
steamer  and  when  they  reached  the  village  of  Esopus  the 


50  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

captain  noticed  a  skiff  approaching,  in  the  stern  of  which 
sat  an  elderly  gentleman  holding  up  his  handkerchief  at- 
tached to  his  cane.  The  steamer  stopped  and  the  gen- 
tleman was  helped  aboard.  Intimating  to  the  captain  that 
he  wanted  to  see  if  the  General  remembered  him  he  was 
conducted  into  the  state-room  and  the  General's  memory 
was  put  to  the  test.  After  a  careful  inspection  the  Gen- 
eral's face  brightened  and  extending  his  hand  he  ex- 
claimed, ''My  old  friend,  Colonel  Harry  Livingston  !"  The 
greeting  was  followed  by  a  pleasurable  interview  remi- 
niscent of  the  war  in  which  both  had  taken  part.  Consid- 
ering the  fact  that  forty  years  had  elapsed  since  the  par- 
ties met,  this  may  be  called  a  notable  achievement  of 
memory. 

It  is  within  our  every-day  observations  that  some  per- 
sons learn  melodies  with  astonishing  ease  while  others  of 
equal  or  greater  intelligence  can  hardly  learn  them  at  all. 
The  morning  after  Foster  sang  the  "Old  Folks  at  Home" 
in  the  Opera  House  in  Cincinnati  it  is  said  the  boys  were 
whistling  the  tune  on  the  streets  of  the  city  with  irre- 
pressible enthusiasm.  It  touched  a  responsive  chord 
which  has  not  ceased  to  vibrate  and  probably  never  will. 
Years  after  this  event  travelers  in  Africa  heard  it  whistled 
by  their  Arab  guides  who  had  evidently  learned  it  from 
American  travelers.  When  Hawthorne  visited  the  Eng- 
lish camp  at  Aldershot  some  fifty  years  ago,  the  officer 
in  command  apologized  for  the  inability  of  the  band  to 
play  "Hail  Columbia."  It  entertained  the  distinguished 
visitor  instead  with  several  negro  melodies.     In  referring 


MEMORY.  51 

to  the  incident  Hawthorne  took  occasion  to  confess  that 
he  lacked  the  ability  to  distinguish  one  tune  from  another 
and  that  he  should  not  have  recognized  the  national  air 
had  it  been  played.  Those  who  are  able  to  appreciate 
music  and  to  comprehend  something  of  its  power  over 
our  emotions  and  sensibilities  may  be  thankful  to  have 
escaped  Hawthorne's  infirmity. 

When  the  mortal  remains  of  Lincoln  reposed  in  state 
in  the  city  hall  in  New  York  in  April,  1865,  and  tens  of 
thousands  were  silently  passing  the  imposing  catafalque 
for  a  last  look  at  the  martyr's  face,  the  climax  of  emotion 
came  when  at  the  midnight  hour  the  German  societies  of 
the  city  appeared  on  the  scene  to  offer  their  grateful 
tribute  of  song.  As  the  rich  melody  of  the  funeral  hymn 
swelling  out  from  this  great  choir  of  human  voices  fell 
upon  the  ears  of  a  hundred  thousand  eager  listeners,  the 
effect  was  overpowering,  and  strong  men  cried  like  chil- 
dren. It  was  a  notable  illustration  of  the  potency  of  music 
under  suitable  conditions  to  move  the  hearts  of  men.  It 
was  moreover  an  indication  that  while  many  lack  the 
ability  to  remember  tunes  so  as  to  reproduce  them,  there 
are  few  who  are  wholly  indifferent  to  their  melody. 

There  is  one  phase  of  this  subject  which  has  interested 
me  and  on  which  little  light  has  been  shed  so  far  as  my 
investigations  have  gone.  If  all  the  faculties  of  the  mind 
are  nourished  and  strengthened  from  the  store-house  of 
memory,  is  there  any  known  law  or  rule  for  assimilating 
or  appropriating  the  accretion? 

Here  are  ten  young  men  who  have  just  entered  col- 


52  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

lege.  They  are  of  about  the  same  age  and  of  about  the 
same  average  ability,  all  seeking  a  liberal  education.  Their 
course  of  study  is  the  same  and  they  are  ruled  by  a 
common  ambition  to  make  the  most  of  their  opportunities. 
They  are  all  under  the  same  professors  and  subject  to  the 
same  general  conditions  and  environment.  On  the  day  of 
their  graduation  they  are  as  distinct  and  unlike  in  all  the 
essentials  of  mentality  as  if  they  had  pursued  their  studies 
at  different  institutions.  Associated  in  all  the  intimacies 
of  student  life,  together  in  the  classrooms,  together  in 
their  diversions,  they  have  grown  to  be  warm  friends,  but 
in  individuality  they  are  farther  apart  then  when  they 
gathered  under  the  same  college  roof.  They  differ  in 
tastes,  in  traits,  in  ambitions,  in  predilections,  in  adapta- 
bility for  distinct  pursuits,  and  probably  in  force  of 
character. 

Is  there  any  law  of  mind  which  explains  the  diver- 
gent results  of  the  same  seeds  of  knowledge  sifted  by  the 
same  processes  into  these  student-minds?  They  have 
gleaned  from  the  same  fields,  drunk  at  the  same  foun- 
tains of  knowledge  and  grown  into  men  of  different 
types  and  different  characteristics. 

Are  we  not  constrained  to  think  that  some  higher  law 
operating  on  temperament,  on  organic  peculiarities,  or 
perhaps  on  nursery-culture,  has  supervened  to  produce 
these  various  types  of  development  in  the  interest  of  a 
combination  richer  in  versatility  and  in  aggregate  value 
and  capacity?    While  no   two   faces  are  alike  is   it  not 


MEMORY.  53 

equally  true  that  mental  equipment  is  never  the  same  in 
two  individuals? 

Ample  illustration  of  this  fact  may  be  found  within 
the  range  of  our  own  personal  knowledge  and  observation, 
and  in  the  pages  of  literature.  The  most  conspicuous  ex- 
ample of  a  thoroughly  trained  memory  which  comes  to 
mind  is  found  in  the  writings  of  Macaulay.  His  essays 
have  been  aptly  defined  as  "illuminated  indices  to  uni- 
versal history."  Almost  every  paragraph  displays  the 
wealth  of  learning.  Nothing  he  ever  read  seems  to  have 
escaped  him.  But  it  cannot  be  said  that  his  memory  was 
developed  at  the  expense  of  other  faculties.  He  presents 
a  remarkable  combination  of  intellectual  grasp  and  power 
coupled  with  a  retentive  memory.  He  was  in  fact  an 
intellectual  prodigy.  He  was  capable  of  dealing  with 
subjects  of  the  largest  magnitude,  problems  of  statecraft, 
problems  which  involved  the  broadest  and  keenest  powers 
of  analysis,  problems  which  involved  the  capacity  to 
group  and  classify  historic  events  and  indicate  their  re- 
lated significance,  and  to  discuss  the  trend  of  institutions 
and  social  and  economic  forces,  and  at  the  same  time  he 
disclosed  such  a  refined  concept  of  literary  style  and 
finish  as  to  delight  and  captivate  the  most  critical  readers. 
Sir  William  Hamilton  cites  a  formidable  list  of  distin- 
guished names  to  disprove  the  claim  that  a  capacious 
memory  is  never  coupled  with  mental  strength.  The 
name  of  Macaulay  might  be  added  to  the  list. 

General  Grant's  "Memoirs"  may  be  cited  as  illustrat- 
ing the  other  extreme.     The  general  had  the  advantage 


54  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

of  a  good  military  education  without  any  marked  taste 
for  literature,  and  without  what  are  styled  scholarly  at- 
tainments, but  his  "Memoirs"  rank  with  the  best  exam- 
ples of  narrative  composition  to  be  found  in  the  English 
language.  They  display  no  wealth  of  learning,  but  in 
clearness,  in  simplicity,  in  easy  naturalness  of  expression 
they  are  above  criticism.  Precise  and  accurate  in  matters 
of  detail  they  are  never  tedious  and  never  fail  to  interest 
and  entertain  the  reader.  As  conversationalists  the  two 
men  differed  as  widely  as  in  their  writings.  Grant  was 
a  man  of  few  words,  a  good  listener,  but  his  judgment 
was  clear,  and  his  views  on  subjects  he  had  considered 
were  always  worth  listening  to  and  remembering.  I  re- 
call a  conversation  on  modern  journalism  in  the  presence 
of  Senator  Howe  and  a  Wisconsin  journalist  which  well 
illustrated  this  observation.  So  distinct  and  clear-cut 
were  his  views  that  I  still  remember  the  substance  of  the 
conversation.  Macaulay,  on  the  other  hand,  was  as  mas- 
terful with  tongue  as  with  pen,  but  his  conversation,  like 
his  writing,  was  overloaded  with  learning.  To  hear  him 
talk  was  like  listening  to  an  article  from  a  cyclopedia. 
It  was  in  fact  a  dissertation  on  some  theme  which  hap- 
pened at  the  time  to  engage  his  attention  and  he  was  the 
central  figure  of  the  group.  His  methods  were  fatal  to 
general  conversation.  Stately  preachments  have  their 
place  but  it  is  not  at  a  dinner  table  or  a  social  gathering. 
The  charm  of  such  occasions  is  the  "free  for  all"  feature. 
Conversation  does  not  tolerate  monopoly.  In  a  mixed 
company  there  will  be  some  who  are  disposed  to  listen, 


MEMORY.  55 

and  others  who  are  disposed  to  talk,  and  equality  of  oppor- 
tunity is  the  only  basis  of  real  and  enjoyable  conversa- 
tion. Had  the  noble  Lord  himself  been  more  common- 
place, he  would  have  realized  that  the  average  social 
gathering  enjoys  the  running-fire  of  light  and  brilliant 
trivialities  spiced  perhaps  with  a  dash  of  gossip,  vastly 
more  than  ponderous  and  learned  dissertation. 

The  great  Sir  Walter  had  a  better  understanding  of 
the  subject.  On  one  of  the  later  pages  of  his  journal 
he  speaks  of  the  visit  of  a  gifted  lady  who  always  brought 
a  flood  of  sunshine  into  his  home  and  hence  a  most  wel- 
come visitor.  "She  was  simple,  full  of  humor  and  ready 
at  repartee,  and  all  this,"  he  says,  "without  the  least  af- 
fectation of  the  blue-stocking,"  a  type  of  person  welcome 
in  every  home  and  every  social  circle. 

Howells  speaks  in  his  "Recollections"  of  his  first  visit 
to  Boston  when  he  was  a  young  man.  Through  the  kind- 
ness of  Mr.  Field  he  was  invited  to  an  informal  lunch 
at  Parker's.  The  company  included  Lowell,  Holmes, 
Longfellow,  Field  and  himself,  a  rare  and  brilliant  group. 
To  the  young  visitor  it  was  a  red-letter  day  and  lingered 
in  his  memory  as  the  feature  of  his  visit  to  New  Eng- 
land. But  it  is  sad  to  think  that  these  radiant  intellects 
have  passed  "beyond  our  ken"  and  that  not  even  Boston 
could  duplicate  that  entertainment  now. 

The  capacity  for  conversation  is  a  boon.  Its  value 
cannot  be  measured.  In  so  far  as  it  is  employed  in  the 
ordinary  round  of  daily  life  we  think  of  it  only  as  a 
convenience.     But  conversation  as  a  factor  in  our  social 


56  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

relations  means  more.  It  is  the  feature  of  every  social 
gathering.  It  is  one  of  our  chief  sources  of  enjoyment. 
What  we  know  as  the  social  talent  is  something  to  be  cov- 
eted. No  gift  affords  greater  pleasure  to  others.  It  is 
impossible  to  define  it  because  it  manifests  itself  in  such 
a  variety  of  ways.  It  is  easier  to  say  what  it  is  not  than 
what  it  is.  Has  it  any  relation  to  the  memory?  One 
would  be  inclined  to  think  that  a  well-stored  mind  would 
be  a  most  important  and  valuable  aid,  notwithstanding 
there  are  many  people  who  seem  to  get  on  very  well  in 
mixed  society  without  it.  It  really  is  a  peculiar  gift.  We 
meet  people  every  day  distinguished  for  learning  and 
ability  who  have  as  little  conception  of  the  social  talent 
as  Hawthorne  had  of  music.  Indeed  it  is  said  that  with 
all  his  eminence  as  a  writer.  Hawthorne  himself  did  not 
shine  in  the  social  circle.  Conversation  as  commonly 
understood  is  simply  an  exchange  of  ideas  on  topics  of 
transient  or  permanent  interest,  but  it  varies  in  quality 
from  the  chatter  of  a  May-Day  party  to  the  kind  Howells 
heard  at  Parker's.  Fortunate  he  and  thrice  welcome  who 
is  able  to  contribute  to  the  pleasure  and  sparkle  of  a 
social  hour  and  who  is  a  good  listener  as  well. 

I  dare  say  we  are  all  able  to  recall  occasions  in  our 
experience  where  we  have  thought  of  the  observation  of 
Sydney  Smith  and  sighed  for  a  brilliant  flash  of  silence. 
And  I  presume  if  we  were  driven  into  a  corner  and 
compelled  to  acknowledge  the  truth  we  would  be  con- 
strained to  admit  that  we  have  listened  to  after  dinner 
speeches  with  the  same  ardent  longing.     Then  there  are 


MEMORY.  57 

wonderful  conversations  which  are  never  heard  and  never 
reported. 

Only  recently  I  was  reading  a  foot-note  in  Scott's 
Journal  which  suggested  immanence  of  memory  in  ab- 
normal conditions  of  the  brain.  Among  the  great  mass 
of  devoted  friends  with  whom  he  had  spent  many  happy 
hours  was  James  Skene  of  Rubis-law,  who  outlived  him 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  retaining  his  faculties 
unimpaired  through  a  serene  and  attractive  old  age.  Not 
long  before  his  departure  his  daughter  found  him  one 
evening  sitting  before  the  cheerful  grate  with  a  radiant 
smile  on  his  venerable  face  that  seemed  almost  super- 
natural. Turning  to  his  daughter,  he  said,  "I  have  had 
such  a  great  pleasure!  Scott  has  been  here;  he  came 
a  long  distance  to  see  me.     He  has  been  sitting  with  me 


*& 


here  at  the  fire-side  talking  over  our  happy  recollections 
of  the  past."  The  aged  man  had  evidently  fallen  asleep 
in  his  easy  chair  and  memory,  always  alert,  had  delicately 
invaded  the  sanctuary  of  his  dreams  and  introduced  a 
dear  old  friend  and  the  delightful  interview  which  seemed 
so  real  had  illuminated  all  his  features.  A  little  later  he 
followed  his  old  friend  to  the  unseen  country  beyond  the 
purple  hills. 

But  someone  asks,  what  are  you  going  to  do  with 
the  genial  friend  who  always  has  a  good  story  to  tell  and 
knows  how  to  tell  it?  I  answer  without  the  slightest 
hesitation,  invite  him  in.  On  the  walls  of  memory  he 
has  a  choice  assortment  of  the  best  things  afloat.  We 
all  know  what  he  means  when  he  says  exultantly,  "that 


58  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

reminds  me."  The  accomplished  story  teller  is  a  bene- 
factor. He  has  a  mission.  It  is  to  make  us  laugh.  He 
may  not  shine  in  a  strictly  intellectual  encounter,  and  he 
may.  But  whether  so  or  not,  we  hail  his  advent  as  a 
sweet  relief  from  mental  care.  If  an  expert  at  the  bus- 
iness we  are  glad  to  make  room  for  him  and  give  him 
our  undivided  and  enthusiastic  attention.  I  have  always 
pitied  Secretary  Chase  because  he  had  not  sufficient  con- 
ception of  humor  to  relish  Lincoln's  stories.  I  pity  the 
person  who  never  tells  a  story  and  cannot  enjoy  one, — he 
misses  so  much.  I  knew  a  senator  years  ago  who  was  a 
past  master  in  this  field.  He  might  have  been  a  brilliant 
comedian  had  he  not  preferred  to  be  called  a  statesman. 
Those  who  knew  him  best  would  cheerfully  surrender 
their  tickets  to  the  opera  for  a  dinner  party  which  in- 
cluded him  as  a  guest.  No  scheme  for  social  enjoyment 
should  overlook  our  genial  and  smiling  friend. 

In  the  light  of  what  I  have  been  saying  on  the  subject 
of  memory,  Montaigne  is  an  enigma.  Among  the  most 
distinguished  writers  of  the  16th  century  whose  writings 
bear  every  indication  of  diligent  and  laborious  study  and 
a  marvelous  memory,  he  laments  the  exceptional  weak- 
ness of  this  faculty  and  affirms  that  his  opportunities  for 
education  were  sadly  deficient.  "I  never  settled  myself," 
he  says,  "to  the  reading  of  any  book  of  solid  learning  but 
Plutarch  and  Seneca,  and  there  like  the  Danaides  I  eter- 
nally fill  and  it  as  constantly  runs  out ;  something  of  which 
drops  upon  this  paper,  but  very  little  or  nothing  remains 
behind  with  me."     If  one  looks  over  the  essays  of  this 


MEMORY.  59 

writer  and  notes  how  largely  they  are  made  up  of  inci- 
dents and  illustrations  drawn  from  every  available  field 
of  literature  then  known,  he  cannot  fail  to  be  astonished 
at  the  writer's  alleged  infirmities  and  limitations.  The 
author  who  is  able  to  quote  profusely  from  Greek  and 
Latin  poets  and  who  was  as  familiar  with  the  English 
language  as  with  his  mother  tongue,  cannot  be  classed 
with  the  uncultured.  He  says,  "I  write  indifferently  of 
whatever  comes  into  my  head  and  make  use  of  nothing 
but  my  own  proper  and  natural  means."  He  may  have 
thought  so,  but  his  pages  lead  to  a  different  conclusion 
and  constrain  us  to  credit  him  with  ample  learning. 

The  constitutional  prevaricator  is  not  the  only  person 
who  needs  a  good  memory.  The  man  of  facts  is  the  man 
of  power.  Many  a  brilliant  advocate  has  been  discom- 
fited by  a  plodding  adversary  armed  with  facts.  Horace 
Greeley  stood  at  the  head  of  newspaper  controversialists 
of  his  day  because  every  fact  and  figure  he  needed  was 
stored  away  in  his  memory.  It  is  sad  to  think  that  the 
greatest  journalist  America  has  produced  should  not  have 
been  content  to  stand  in  history  for  what  he  was,  rather 
than  sacrifice  himself  to  a  misguided  ambition. 

Nowhere  does  one  stand  in  greater  need  of  a  well- 
stored  memory  than  in  the  discussion  of  political  and 
economic  questions.  Many  of  our  public  men  are  in  the 
habit  of  keeping  note  books  of  current  events.  Such  data 
may  be  valuable  and  labor-saving  and  if  properly  classi- 
fied may  be  consulted  to  advantage;  but  it  is  manifestly 
better  if  one  can,  like  Mackintosh,  find  what  he  wants 


60  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

on  a  peg  along  the  walls  of  memory  and  be  able  to  reach 
up  and  take  it  down.  In  a  body  like  the  American  Con- 
gress this  suggestion  finds  frequent  illustration.  A  few 
years  since  in  considering  the  Miscellaneous  Appropria- 
tion Bill,  which  embraced  an  appropriation  for  new  car- 
pets and  furniture  for  one  of  the  departments,  the  dis- 
cussion took  a  wide  range  and  became  somewhat  heated. 
Finally  at  the  end  of  a  declamatory  speech  on  the  ex- 
travagance of  the  administration  a  member  demanded 
with  a  show  of  great  sincerity  to  be  informed  as  to  what 
had  become  of  the  carpets  and  furniture  supplied  to  the 
same  department  only  a  few  years  before?  Cannon,  who 
was  then  chairman  of  the  committee  in  charge  of  the  bill, 
sprang  to  his  feet  and  with  notable  vehemence  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  in  Dolly  Madison's  time  the 
family  washing  was  hung  up  to  dry  in  the  big  east  room 
of  the  White  House,  and  then  stretching  himself  upon  his 
tiptoes  with  arms  extended  and  fists  clenched,  he  shouted, 
"Now  I  want  to  know  what  in  heaven's  name  has  become 
of  those  old  clothes  lines !"  With  shouts  of  laughter,  in 
which  both  sides  joined,  the  next  item  in  the  bill  was 
taken  up  for  consideration.  Had  the  chairman  been 
obliged  to  explore  his  scrap-book  he  might  have  lost  his 
opportunity. 

I  recall  another  illustration  of  more  serious  import. 
In  the  spring  of  1872  it  was  my  privilege  to  hear  the 
interesting  debate  in  the  Senate  which  involved  the  con- 
certed attempt  of  Senators  Sumner,  Schurz  and  Trum- 
bull to  break  down  President  Grant,  and  prevent  his  nom- 


MEMORY.  61 

ination  for  a  second  term.  It  was  an  ill-advised  under- 
taking and  proved  much  more  formidable  than  the  sena- 
tors anticipated.  Grant  had  done  nothing  to  forfeit  the 
confidence  of  the  people  and  they  could  discover  no  just 
ground  for  the  assault.  It  was  said  that  in  the  attempt 
to  acquire  by  negotiation  a  part  of  the  island  of  San 
Domingo  he  had  failed  to  treat  Senator  Sumner  with  the 
consideration  to  which  the  senator  thought  himself  en- 
titled. Whether  this  was  the  secret  of  the  estrangement 
is  not  important.  The  sequel  disclosed  intense  personal 
bitterness  on  the  part  of  the  senator  which  greatly  weak- 
ened the  character  of  the  assault. 

It  was  arranged  that  Sumner  should  open  the  discus- 
sion and  the  others  follow  at  such  intervals  as  the  ex- 
igencies of  the  situation  should  seem  to  require.  His 
speech  was  carefully  prepared  and  read  from  manuscript. 
The  San  Domingo  incident  was  the  main  citadel  of  as- 
sault and  the  attempt  was  made  to  treat  it  as  a  dangerous 
stretch  of  executive  power,  due  to  unwarranted  ambition 
and  failure  to  comprehend  the  constitution  and  the  genius 
and  principles  of  the  government.  Insignificant  circum- 
stances were  elaborately  denounced  in  the  most  intem- 
perate language,  and  one  might  well  suppose  in  listening 
to  the  speech  that  the  senator  really  thought  the  fate  of 
the  republic  was  involved  in  the  issue.  The  other  speeches 
followed  in  due  time,  according  to  the  programme,  but 
they  contained  very  little  that  was  not  in  the  argument  of 
Sumner. 

Senator  Morton  was  one  of  Grant's  stanchcst  friends. 


62  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

He  was  a  man  of  great  courage  and  tremendous  force 
of  character  and  no  man  in  public  life  was  better  posted 
in  current  political  history.  He  was  master  of  every  de- 
tail. Without  the  special  gifts  and  graces  of  the  orator 
he  was  a  ready  and  powerful  debater,  a  sagacious  party 
leader  and  in  ready  ability  to  engage  in  such  a  discussion 
he  had  no  rival  in  the  Senate.  The  secret  of  his  power 
was  in  his  strong  common  sense,  and  his  amazing  famil- 
iarity with  matters  of  detail.  His  sentences  were  short, 
his  reasoning  clear  and  cogent,  and  his  speeches  never 
marred  by  ill-temper.  He  exhibited  great  skill  in  detect- 
ing the  vulnerable  points  in  his  adversary's  argument  and 
his  knowledge  of  the  facts  and  circumstances  involved 
was  of  great  assistance  in  exposing  its  weakness.  If  he 
could  succeed  in  demolishing  the  main  features  of  these 
assaults  in  a  speech  of  thirty  minutes  his  object  was  ac- 
complished, it  being  deemed  important  that  the  press  re- 
ports of  each  of  the  several  arguments  should  carry  to 
the  public  both  sides  of  the  controversy.  The  result  jus- 
tified the  scheme.  Other  senators  rallied  to  the  support 
of  the  president  after  time  had  been  taken  for  prepara- 
tion, but  it  was  unnecessary.  The  object  had  been  ac- 
complished. The  attempt  to  destroy  the  reputation  and 
standing  of  the  president  had  failed  ignominiously,  and 
the  instant  result  may  be  credited  in  a  large  measure  to 
the  fact  that  Senator  Morton  was  equipped  to  meet  the 
emergency.  You  will  readily  perceive  the  pertinence  of 
this  bit  of  history  in  relation  to  my  theme.  The  senator 
realized  the  importance  of  putting  the  jury  in  possession 


MEMORY.  63 

of  the  whole  case  before  they  deliberated  on  their  verdict. 
He  was  wise.  Perhaps  I  ought  not  to  overlook  the  fact 
that  the  physical  condition  of  Senator  Morton  added  a 
feature  to  the  clash  of  intellect  which  bordered  on  the 
pathetic.  He  had  at  that  time  lost  the  use  of  his  lower 
limbs  so  completely  that  he  was  obliged  to  speak  from 
his  chair,  a  circumstance  which  naturally  excited  sym- 
pathy. He  used  no  notes  and  few  gestures,  but  his  argu- 
ments were  so  persuasive  and  so  vigorously  urged  that 
all  who  sympathized  with  his  views  listened  with  the 
keenest  interest,  and  with  no  attempt  to  conceal  their 
satisfaction.  It  was  a  memorable  debate  and  I  am  glad 
to  have  witnessed  it.  The  incident,  it  may  be  said,  had 
not  the  slightest  effect  on  the  standing  of  the  president, 
and  after  his  triumphant  re-election  was  seldom  alluded 
to, — an  indication  that  a  well-earned  reputation  may  be 
confidently  left  in  the  keeping  of  the  republic. 

An  English  writer  has  said  that  man  is  ruled  by  im- 
agination. Possibly  this  may  be  so  in  some  instances,  but 
the  average  man,  I  venture  to  affirm,  is  much  more  likely 
to  be  ruled  by  sentiment,  and  memory  is  the  nursery  of 
sentiment.  The  home  sentiment,  which  is  one  of  the 
potent  forces  of  social  order  and  one  of  the  great  con- 
servative agencies  of  healthy  government,  has  its  spring 
in  the  treasure  house  of  memory,  and  the  same  may  be 
said  of  patriotism,  which  is  only  an  expression  of  national 
sentiment,  and  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  affirm  that  all  the 
delights  of  friendship  and  affection  so  essential  to  human 
happiness  are  supplied  at  the  same  beneficent   fountain. 


64  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

Here  may  be  found  the  impulse  and  inspiration  for  such 
appealing  emanations  as  "Home,  Sweet  Home,"  "The  Old 
Oaken  Bucket,"  "The  Old  Arm  Chair,"  "The  Old  Folks 
at  Home"  and  "The  Old  Band."  The  first  of  these  has 
been  translated  into  every  known  language  and  sung  the 
earth  around  as  if  to  demonstrate  that  in  the  last  analysis 
the  human  heart  is  one.  Probably  no  feature  of  Thomp- 
son's popular  play,  "The  Old  Homestead,"  was  more 
highly  appreciated  than  "The  Old  Oaken  Bucket"  sung 
by  the  quartette  as  it  comes  in  from  the  harvest  field  and 
gathers  at  the  well  curb,  where  the  old  bucket  is  sus- 
pended. 

There  is  a  joy  we  can  hardly  define  in  listening  to 
these  old  songs  which  stir  the  strongest  sentiments  of  the 
heart  and  bring  back  the  memories  of  long  ago, — memor- 
ies rich  and  mellow  as  old  wine,  and  sometimes  tender 
as  a  sigh.  There  is  an  incident  connected  with  the  author 
of  "Home,  Sweet  Home"  which  I  may  be  pardoned  for 
recalling  as  it  illustrates  the  thought  I  have  in  mind. 
Some  years  ago  it  occurred  to  the  authorities  of  our 
national  government  that  it  was  a  violation  of  all  the 
proprieties  to  allow  the  ashes  of  Howard  Payne  to  rest 
under  a  foreign  flag;  and  a  war  vessel  was  dispatched  to 
Algiers  to  bring  them  back  to  his  native  land.  On  the 
headstone  which  marked  his  resting  place  the  commis- 
sioners discovered  an  inscription  worthy  of  remembrance 
furnished  by  some  one  whose  name  remains  unknown  : 

"Sure  when  thy  gentle  spirit  fled 
To  realms  beyond  the  azure  dome, 
With  arms  outstretched  the  angels  said 
Welcome  to  heaven — home,  sweet  home." 


MEMORY.  65 

A  touch  of  sentiment  it  is  pleasant  to  note. 

And  while  we  speak  of  sentiment  and  delight  in  its 
ministrations  and  cannot  be  unmindful  of  the  pleasure 
we  are  constantly  deriving  from  its  presence  in  our  daily 
experience,  are  we  not  aware  of  conditions  in  our  social 
economy  which  constrain  us  to  sigh  for  a  return  to  and 
a  revival  of  sturdy,  old-fashioned  home  sentiment?  If 
I  mistake  not  this  is  one  of  the  urgent  demands  of  the 
times.  Love  is  the  highest  expression  of  sentiment  and 
home  is  its  temple.  Burns  had  his  faults,  but  he  had  a 
clear  and  distinct  conception  of  the  ideal  Scotch  home 
and  he  made  the  world  his  debtor  when  he  wrote  the 
'"Cotters'  Saturday  Night.''  Something  is  wrong  when 
the  bulwarks  of  social  order  are  so  readily  broken  down 
and  normal  home  life  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  social 
dissipation  and  unrest ;  when  titles  are  prized  above  man- 
hood, and  character  and  conduct  are  eliminated  from  the 
problem  of  matchmaking  by  giddy  mothers,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  patrimony.  Is  it  strange  that  the  lurid  atmos- 
phere of  our  divorce  courts  should  bear  to  the  public  the 
flotsam  and  jetsam  of  broken  homes  and  blasted  lives? 
Must  we  conclude  that  these  ominous  manifestations  are 
the  evidence  of  a  new  order  of  things  which  has  come 
to  stay,  or  may  we  indulge  the  hope  that  it  results  from 
temporary  conditions,  and  that  in  good  time  the  sancti- 
ties of  a  genuine  home  life  will  be  restored  and  love 
and  duty  again  enthroned. 

But  the  elaboration  of  this  inquiry  is  aside  from  my 
present  purpose.     I  wish  rather  to  emphasize  and  exalt 


66  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

memory  as  the  superb  and  crowning  capacity  of  mind, 
not,  however,  in  the  sense  of  extolling  it  as  a  distinct  and 
isolated  faculty,  but  as  the  indispensable  auxiliary  of  all 
our  mental  powers  and  the  unwearied  agent  of  intellect- 
ual growth.  Not  only  does  it  contribute  to  our  highest 
happiness  and  serve  our  needs  in  every  relation  of  life, 
but  it  is  at  once  the  means  and  the  measure  of  intellectual 
expansion.  There  can  be  no  attainment  without  it.  It  is 
not  the  power  behind  the  throne  of  mental  achievement, 
it  is  the  secret  of  such  achievement.  Nor  this  alone.  As 
the  nursery  of  sentiment  it  is  potential  in  the  formation 
and  development  of  character,  which  can  hardly  be  re- 
garded as  the  least  important  of  its  ministrations.  The 
fact  is  the  service  of  memory  cannot  be  measured  or 
limited.  It  is  our  best  companion,  our  most  constant  and 
faithful  friend.  All  its  resources  are  subject  to  our  call. 
When  we  reason,  when  we  reflect,  memory  is  our  "staff 
and  stay."  When  we  revert  to  the  past  it  is  memory 
which  points  out  the  pathway  and  leads  our  willing  feet 
and  paints  all  the  priceless  pictures  over  which  we  love 
to  linger.  It  is  the  golden  key  which  opens  the  store- 
house of  knowledge.  It  is  the  wireless  agent,  older  than 
telephone  and  telegraph,  which  brings  us  messages  of  the 
richest  thought  of  all  the  ages.  It  is  in  the  brief  of  the 
lawyer  and  in  the  opinion  of  the  judge.  It  is  in  the  cul- 
tured sentences  of  the  orator,  and  the  finished  lines  of 
the  poet.  It  pervades  every  shred  of  the  flag  we  honor. 
It  contributes  of  its  stores  to  every  page  of  literature,  to 
every  note  of  music,  and  to  every  worthy  achievement 


MEMORY. 


67 


in  the  realm  of  art.  It  is  present  in  every  missive  of 
love  and  friendship  which  speeds  over  land  and  sea.  It 
is  in  every  tear  which  hallows  the  cheek  of  affection  and 
in  every  strand  which  binds  the  heart  to  home. 

If  I  have  succeeded  in  any  measure  in  placing  this 
crowning  gift  of  mind  in  the  temple  of  honor  where  it 
may  receive  just  recognition,  I  have  accomplished  my 
purpose. 


THE  DREAM  OF  "NEW  FRANCE." 


By  Frederick  C.  Winkler. 

When  your  president,  some  months  ago,  apprised  me 

that  I  would  be  expected  to  present  an  address  (either 

original  or  borrowed)  at  the  June  meeting  of  the  Phantom 

Club,  I  was  reduced  to  very  much  of  a  quandary  as  to  the 

choice  of  a  subject.       I  sat  with  a  parade  of  possible 

themes  before  my  mind's  eye  like  a  fisherman  with  his 

angle  out,  but  I  had  no  bite.     Finally  it  occurred  to  me 

that  Shakespeare  (or  Bacon,  as  I  believe  you  call  him  in 

this   Club),   in   speaking  in  the   name  of  the   King   of 

Phantoms,  said: 

"We  are  such  stuff 
As  dreams  are  made  on." 

This  gave  me  an  idea — a  dream.  What  better  in  my 
poverty  can  I  choose  for  my  subject?  A  dream  of 
empire ! 

Look  at  the  array  of  nations  which,  in  the  heyday  of 
prosperity,  have  indulged  the  vision  of  perpetual  sway.  I 
beg  to  quote  from  Mr.  Charles  Phillips  of  about  a  hundred 
years  ago : 

"I  appeal  to  History !  Tell  me,  thou  reverend  chron- 
icler of  the  grave,  can  all  the  achievements  of  successful 
heroism,  can  all  the  illusions  of  ambition  realized  or  all  the 
establishments  of  this  world's  wisdom  secure  to  empire 
the  permanency  of  its  possessions?     Alas,  Troy  thought 

68 


THE  DREAM  OF  "NEW  FRANCE."         69 

so  once,  yet  the  land  of  Priam  only  lives  in  song!  Thebes 
thought  so  once,  yet  her  hundred  gates  have  crumbled, 
and  her  very  tombs  are  but  as  the  dust  they  were  vainly 
intended  to  commemorate !  So  thought  Palmyra — where 
is  she?     So  thought  Persepolis,  and  now — 

'Yon  waste,  where  roaming  lions  howl, 
'Yon  aisle,  where  moans  the  grey-eyed  owl, 
'Shows  the  proud  Persian's  great  abode, 
'Where  sceptered  once,  an  earthly  God.' 

So  thought  the  country  of  Demosthenes  and  the  Spartans, 
yet  Leonidas  is  trampled  by  the  timid  slave,  and  Athens 
insulted  by  the  servile,  mindless,  and  enervate  Ottoman !" 

These  were  ancient  dreams.  I  beg  to  call  attention  to  a 
dream  of  modern  times,  a  dream  which  reflected  its 
gorgeous  colors  over  the  broad  expanse  of  the  American 
horizon,  sustaining  their  luster  for  a  period  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years. 

When  Columbus  discovered  the  New  World  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  Pope  of  Rome  gave 
it  all  to  Spain.  But  he  did  not  warrant  the  title.  The 
spirit  of  nautical  enterprise  was  aroused.  Discovery  fol- 
lowed discovery,  bringing  knowledge  of  the  vastness  of 
the  New  Hemisphere  and  conviction  that  it  could  not  be 
monopolized  by  a  single  power.  It  fell  to  France  to  dis- 
cover the  greatest  of  all  rivers. 

In  1534  James  Cartier,  sailing  under  commission  from 
the  Admiral  of  France,  discovered  the  St.  Lawrence.  He 
sailed  up  its  current  to  Stadeconna,  the  Indian  name  of 
Quebec.     He  came  again  in  1540  and  erecting  a  cross  with 


70  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

proper  inscriptions,  took  formal  possession  for  Francis  I, 
King  of  France.  But  more  than  half  a  century  elapsed 
before  colonization  began.  This  came  with  Samuel  de 
Champlain,  who  has  been  called  the  "Father  of  Canada." 
This  gallant  soldier,  experienced  navigator  and  devoted 
servant  of  his  Church  and  of  his  King,  exploring  the  river 
in  1603  conceived  that  here  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence and  not  in  Arcadia  must  be  the  seat  of  the  French - 
American  empire.  He  returned  to  France  with  this  en- 
thusiastic conviction,  and  in  1608,  as  we  are  told,  "had  the 
great  happiness  to  plant  under  the  rocks  of  Quebec  the 
first  permanent  French  settlement  in  Canada."  True,  it 
was  a  mere  speck  of  a  hamlet,  but  the  law  of  the  dis- 
coverer did  not  require  him  to  fence  his  possessions.  The 
waterways  provided  by  nature  were  the  great  highways 
of  travel.  The  people  who  possessed  them  held  the  key 
to  the  lands  which  they  drained,  hence  the  early  discoverer 
took  unto  himself  a  law  that  he  who  discovered  and  pos- 
sessed himself  of  the  bank  of  an  important  river  held  not 
only  the  whole  length  of  the  stream,  but  all  of  its  tribu- 
taries and  all  the  lands  which  they  watered.  It  was  not 
an  acknowledged  rule,  but  every  adventurous  explorer 
asserted  it,  although  he  might  vigorously  deny  it  to  others. 
He  could  set  no  boundary  to  his  claim ! 

"No  pent  up  Utica  contracts  our  powers, 
"But  the  whole  boundless  continent  is  ours." 

He  believed  in  that  shibboleth.  In  this  spirit  the 
"Father  of  Canada"  planted  his  hut  on  the  banks  of  the 
St.  Lawrence.     It  was  a  point  of  settlement  of  great  im- 


THE  DREAM  OF  "NEW  FRANCE."         71 

portance.  It  gave  to  the  French  easy  entrance  to  the 
interior  of  the  continent.  Champlain  with  his  little  colony, 
some  soldiers,  the  nucleus  of  an  ecclesiastical  brotherhood, 
some  artisans,  a  little  body  of  adventurous  traders,  and  it 
is  said  one  farmer,  effected  his  occupation.  He  pursued 
his  scheme  with  wonderful  activity  and  signal  skill.  He 
made  friends  with  the  Algonquins  and  the  Hurons,  his 
nearest  Indian  tribes,  and  repressed  the  Iroquois,  his 
neighbors  to  the  south  who  were  always  hostile.  He  es- 
tablished trading  posts,  one  at  the  mouth  of  the  Ottawa 
whence  he  and  his  followers,  by  way  of  that  river,  ex- 
tended their  explorations  to  the  regions  of  Lake  Huron 
and  Lake  Michigan.  He  found  the  beautiful  lake  in  the 
present  State  of  New  York  which  bears  his  name.  He 
struggled  manfully  against  the  most  discouraging  trials. 
But  the  growth  of  the  colony  was  slow.  Its  source  of 
subsistence  was  the  fur  trade,  the  products  of  which  were 
sent  to  France  and  the  means  of  maintenance  received  in 
return.  So  it  happened  that  the  dream  of  empire  came 
very  near  suffering  an  ignominious  eclipse  before  it  had 
risen  to  the  rank  of  an  aspiration. 

After  a  hard,  trying  winter  in  which  provisions  ran 
short  and  the  little  town  was  reduced  to  famine,  anxious 
eyes  turning  wistfully  down  the  river,  after  a  long,  pain- 
ful waiting,  espied  vessels  hovering  in  the  distance.  But. 
alas,  it  was  not  the  expected  aid,  but  an  enemy  making 
his  way  up  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  little  settlement  did 
not  know  that  war  had  broken  out  between  England  and 
France  and  that  the  King  of  England  had  issued  letters 


72  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

of  marque  to  British  shippers  authorizing  them  to  make 
war  on  French  shipping  and  possessions!  A  small  fleet 
of  armed  vessels  flying  the  English  flag,  commanded  by 
David  Kirke,  had  taken  position  at  Tadoussac,  seized 
everything  French  it  could  get  hold  of  and  completely 
controlled  the  roadway  of  the  river.  Soon  the  demand 
for  surrender  came  to  Quebec.  Champlain  had  no  am- 
munition ;  it  was  hopeless  to  fight,  but  he  marshalled  his 
little  army — sixteen  men — assigned  each  to  his  post  and 
defiantly  refused  to  yield.  His  condition,  however,  grew 
more  desperate  day  by  day,  and  when  two  weeks  later 
armed  hostile  ships  made  their  appearance,  resistance 
was  impossible,  and  on  the  19th  day  of  July,  1629,  the 
little  beginnings  of  New  France  passed  from  the  pos- 
session of  the  Frenchman  into  the  hands  of  the  British. 
Champlain  sailed  to  Europe  with  his  captor,  who  there 
learned  to  his  chagrin  that  the  war  between  the  great 
powers,  which  had  been  so  propitious  to  him,  had  in 
fact  come  to  an  end  in  the  previous  April,  and  that  all  of 
his  captures  made  in  July  were  illegal  and  had  to  be 
restored ! 

There  was  some  delay,  but  in  1632  the  Kirkes  were 
compelled  to  return  their  Canadian  possessions  to  the 
power  of  France. 

Cardinal  Richelieu  had  now  become  the  administra- 
tive power  of  that  kingdom.  He  re-organized  affairs  in 
Canada.  Champlain,  re-commissioned  to  the  command, 
returned  to  Quebec,  receiving  the  enthusiastic  acclaim 
of  its  inhabitants.    But  his  days  were  brief.    He  died  on 


THE  DREAM  OF  "NEW  FRANCE."         73 

Christmas  Day,  1635.  "His  last  cares,"  the  historian 
tells  us,  "were  for  his  colony  and  its  suffering  families, 
and  the  feeble  command  built  a  tomb  to  his  honor." 

Up  to  the  present  time,  though  individuals  had  dis- 
played great  enterprise  and  splendid  daring,  France 
as  a  nation  had  not  deeply  impressed  itself  on  the  West- 
ern Hemisphere.  The  century  and  a  quarter  which  fol- 
lowed the  restoration  in  1632  marks  the  period  of  signal 
development  which  pushed  for  ascendency,  and  threw  its 
claim  of  empire  over  a  geographical  range  of  dazzling 
extent. 

Under  the  new  policy  a  firmer  foothold  was  taken 
upon  the  soil.  Agriculture  was  increased;  fixed  posses- 
sions were  encouraged;  the  religious  zeal  of  the  times 
became  a  dominant  factor ;  the  Jesuit  and  other  ecclesias- 
tical organizations  brought  their  aid.  Priest  and  friar, 
shrinking  from  no  danger  and  avoiding  no  hardship,  pene- 
trated to  the  farthest,  wildest  regions,  planting  missions 
which  became  the  outposts  and  at  the  same  time  strong- 
holds of  civilization — all  to  bring  to  the  benighted  savage 
knowledge  of  the  true  faith  and  save  him  from  the  doom 
of  the  unbaptized. 

"I  cannot  tell  you,"  said  one  of  their  number,  "what 
abundant  consolation  I  found  under  all  my  troubles;  for 
when  one  sees  so  many  infidels  needing  nothing  but  a 
drop  of  water  to  make  them  children  of  God,  he  feels  an 
irresistible  ardor  to  sacrifice  to  it  his  labors  and  his  life." 
The  whole  population,  if  such  it  may  be  called,  was  im- 
bued with  this  spirit.     Soldier  and  ranger  followed  and 


74  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

supported  the  ecclesiastic,  but  it  is  said  that  no  adven- 
turous trader  ever  entered  a  wilderness  but  he  found 
that  a  priest  had  been  there  before  him.  The  Indian 
tribes  were  greatly  attracted  by  the  ceremonious  form 
of  worship  offered  for  their  participation. 

The  French  colonists  made  use  to  the  utmost  of  their 
Indian  allies ;  their  ways  to  the  natives  were  kind  and 
conciliatory.  They  studied  their  languages.  All  but  the 
arrogant  Iroquois  were  disposed  to  be  friends. 

Thus  little  by  little  the  colony  grew  and  extended 
itself  over  its  vast  territory.  Following  the  Ottawa  the 
junction  of  Lakes  Huron  and  Michigan  was  reached  at 
an  early  day,  where  the  important  mission  of  Michilli- 
mackinac  was  established.  In  1673  Father  Marquette, 
with  a  single  companion,  Joliet,  in  a  marvelous  journey 
of  three  thousand  miles  traversed  the  present  state  of 
Wisconsin,  found  the  great  river  which  was  supposed 
to  empty  into  the  Pacific,  and  canoed  down  the  Missis- 
sippi in  a  birch  bark  beyond  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri 
and  beyond  the  Arkansas.  It  was  a  great  achievement. 
It  opened  the  vision  of  possessing  the  mouth  of  the  great 
river.  With  command  of  the  St.  Lawrence  at  one  end 
and  of  the  Mississippi  at  the  other,  the  whole  great 
interior  would  be  laid  in  the  lap  of  France. 

Among  the  great  men  who  sought  fame  and  fortune 
in  Canada  was  the  Sieur  of  La  Salle,  "the  greatest  orator 
in  North  America."  Versed  in  all  their  languages,  no  one 
equalled  his  skill  and  ascendency  in  the  management  of 
Indians.     Hampered  by  misfortunes,  opposed  by  enemies 


THE  DREAM  OF  "NEW  FRANCE."         75 

and  intrigue,  harrassed  by  debt,  he  struggled  against 
apparently  insuperable  difficulties,  but  no  difficulty  baf- 
fled him.  Defeat  only  led  to  new  endeavor.  It  was  his 
aim  to  reach  the  outlet  of  the  Mississippi.  By  Herculean 
efforts  he  was  able  to  embark  on  his  final  expedition  in 
December,  1681.  His  starting  point  was  Fort  Miami 
on  the  east  shore  of  Lake  Michigan.  His  force  consisted 
of  twenty-three  Frenchmen  and  eighteen  Indians.  His 
transports  were  birch  bark  canoes.  He  crossed  the  lake 
to  the  Chicago  River,  thence  to  the  Illinois,  and  jour- 
neyed down  the  Mississippi.  I  cannot  follow  the  inter- 
esting voyage.  When  approaching  his  goal  he  divided 
his  party,  following  different  channels  of  the  river.  On 
an  early  day  in  April  he  beheld  the  great  bosom  of  the 
Gulf  before  him.  Then  he  re-assembled  his  party.  He 
erected  a  proud  column  bearing  the  arms  of  France. 
There  was  a  great  demonstration — the  chanting  of  the 
Te  Deum,  volleys  of  musketry  and  a  grandiloquent  proc- 
lamation by  the  orator  wherein  he  took  possession  in  the 
name  of  his  Majesty,  the  King  of  France,  and  his  suc- 
cessors, "of  this  country  of  Louisiana,  the  seas,  harbors, 
peoples,  provinces,  cities,  towns,  villages,  mines,  minerals, 
ports,  bays,  adjacent  straits,  and  all  the  nations, 
fisheries,  streams  and  rivers  within  the  extent  of  said 
Louisiana  from  the  mouth  of  the  great  river  St.  Louis, 
otherwise  called  the  Ohio  *  *  *  as  also  along  the 
river  Colbert,  or  Mississippi,  and  the  rivers  which  dis- 
charge themselves  thereinto." 

A  cross  was  planted  beside  the  column  and  a  leaden 


76  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

plate  buried  beneath  it  bearing  the  inscription  "Ludovicus 
Magnus  regnat."  It  was  indeed  a  princely  domain — not 
seized  it  is  true  in  very  solid  occupation ;  it  was  of 

"Such  stuff 

"As  dreams  are  made  on." 

While  New  France  was  thus  extending  her  posses- 
sions and  claims  in  the  interior,  the  growing  force  of  the 
British  possessions  on  the  Atlantic  coast  was  a  constant 
source  of  anxiety  and  irritation.  The  two  nationalities 
were  enemies  of  old.  They  were  rivals  in  the  New 
World.  Both  were  deeply  religious.  Each  looked  upon 
the  Satanic  heresy  of  the  other  with  dutifully  rancorous 
hatred.  Their  parent  countries  were  generally  at  war, 
and  every  war  between  them  afforded  justification  for 
acts  of  hostility  here.  These  chiefly  took  the  form  of 
ravages  upon  frontier  towns  aided  by  Indian  allies. 

A  notable  instance  of  these  coming  from  the  French 
side  was  the  raid  on  the  village  of  Deerfield  in  1704 
It  was  during  the  war  for  the  Spanish  succession,  a  war 
involving  the  succession  to  the  throne  of  Spain,  a  matter 
in  which,  of  course,  the  American  colonies,  both  French 
and  English,  had  the  deepest  interest. 

Deerfield  was  a  frontier  settlement  on  the  Connecticut 
River.  It  contained  some  forty  houses,  the  principal  ones 
and  the  "meeting  house"  enclosed  within  a  stockade.  The 
village  had  as  its  pastor  the  Reverend  John  Williams,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard,  a  man  of  courage  as  well  as  ortho- 
dox piety,  who  lived  within  the  stockade  with  his  wife 
and  eight  children.     It  is  to  him  and  his  fertile  pen  that 


THE  DREAM  OF  "NEW  FRANCE."         77 

we  chiefly  owe  information  of  the  catastrophe  that  fell 
upon  his  flock.  To  the  north  of  the  New  England  settle- 
ment dwelt  the  tribe  of  the  Abenakis.  They  were  friends 
of  the  French,  and  to  a  large  extent  converts  to  the  true 
faith.  Large  parties  of  them  had  become  dwellers  in 
Christian  missions  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
Canadian  power.  A  state  of  war  being  recognized,  the 
village  of  Deerfield  had  reason  for  anxiety.  There  had 
been  rumors  of  contemplated  attacks  by  the  French  and 
Indians,  and  through  the  autumn  the  inhabitants  were 
wary,  seeking  safety  especially  at  night  within  the  pro- 
tection of  the  palisades ;  but  as  winter  deepened,  the  seat 
of  the  enemy  being  three  hundred  miles  away,  the  sense 
of  insecurity  faded  and  precautions  were  largely 
neglected. 

But  the  ice  and  snow  which  to  these  villagers  seemed 
a  shield  of  protection  were  turned  by  their  vigilant  foes 
into  a  means  of  attack.  Vaudreuil,  the  governor  of  Can- 
ada, was  fierce  for  a  blow  at  exasperating  New  Eng- 
land. He  was  advised  that  "his  Indians  were  ready  to 
lift  the  hatchet  against  the  English."  In  the  depth  of 
winter,  therefore,  he  organized  his  expedition  for  the 
destruction  of  this  outlying  hamlet.  The  French  officer, 
Major  Haertel  de  Rouville,  was  given  the  command.  Fifty 
Canadians  and  two  hundred  Abenakis  and  Cuyahogas. 
warriors  of  the  missions,  constituted  its  force.  A  be- 
nevolent priest  charged  these  warriors,  subjects  of  the 
mission,  as  they  were  about  to  start  on  the  expedition, 
to  baptize  all  children  before  putting  them  to  death.   First 


78  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

to  redeem  from  original  sin  and  cleanse  from  heresy  by 
the  sacred  rite  of  sanctified  baptism,  and  then  to  slay, 
seemed  no  enormity  to  the  pious  mind. 

On  snow  shoes,  its  supplies  carried  on  sledges,  not 
without  suffering  from  hunger  and  cold,  this  warlike 
body  pursued  its  journey  through  the  drifts  of  uninhab- 
ited forests  and  over  frozen  streams.  It  approached  its 
destination  on  the  afternoon  of  February  28,  1704.  A 
halt  was  made  about  two  miles  from  the  village.  Success 
was  to  be  obtained  by  surprise  at  the  darkest  time  of 
night.  The  utmost  care  of  concealment  was  observed. 
No  fires  were  permitted  in  spite  of  piercing  frost.  Two 
hours  before  dawn  was  the  chosen  hour  for  attack.  Cir- 
cumstances favored  it.  The  same  sense  of  security  which 
had  caused  the  omission  of  other  precautions  allowed  the 
guards  to  retire  after  twelve  o'clock  at  night  so  that  the 
whole  settlement  was  in  slumber.  The  snow  drifts  were 
covered  by  a  crust  of  ice  and  came  so  near  to  a  level  of 
the  palisades  that  the  latter  presented  no  serious  im- 
pediment. Thus  Rouville  and  his  band  were  able  to 
come  upon  their  victims  unperceived.  "Then  with  one 
accord  they  screeched  the  war  whoop  and  assailed  the 
doors  of  the  houses  with  axes  and  hatchets."  The  as- 
sailants rushed  to  their  harvest.  Men,  women  and  chil- 
dren were  ruthlessly  slain,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  in  the 
heat  of  the  assault  the  pious  Indians  forgot  the  baptism. 
Such  as  were  desirable  as  captives  were  taken ;  all  others 
within  their  power  fell  beneath  their  hatchet. 

All  but  one  house  within  the  stockade  and  all  but 


THE  DREAM  OF  "NEW  FRANCE."         79 

a  few  distant  ones  outside  were  taken,  sacked  and  burned. 
Inhabitants  who  escaped  found  shelter  in  the  fortified 
house  of  Jonathan  Wells  at  the  extreme  edge  of  the 
struggling  village,  which  was  not  attacked.  Some  fifty 
were  killed  and  over  one  hundred  taken  captive. 

The  march  of  the  prisoners  to  the  homes  of  their  cap- 
tors was  a  long  and  weary  one.  The  melting  of  snow 
and  the  breaking  up  of  the  ice  as  the  season  advanced 
made  their  route  almost  impassable.  There  was  suffering 
from  want  of  food.  It  would  probably  be  unjust  to 
charge  the  captors  with  ruthless  cruelty,  on  the  other 
hand  there  was  no  sentimental  tenderness,  and  where  a 
victim  became  disabled  and  unable  to  proceed,  a  blow 
of  the  tomahawk  was  deemed  the  proper  means  to  put 
him  out  of  misery.  In  this  way  seventeen  were  killed ; 
among  them  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  John  Williams,  who, 
enfeebled  by  recent  sickness,  fainted  in  crossing  a  stream. 
Several  are  said  to  have  died  of  starvation.  Each  healthy 
prisoner,  however,  had  his  value,  and  in  the  main  they 
were  treated  with  kindness.  The  prisoners  were  the 
property  of  those  who  had  captured  them.  One-half  of 
them,  it  is  estimated,  never  saw  their  friends  or  their 
homes  again.  Mr.  Williams  and  his  children  were  sepa- 
rated. He  had  two  Indian  owners  who  carried  him  to 
the  Abenaki's  village  of  St.  Francis.  Here  they  tried  re- 
ligiously, both  by  persuasion  and  by  force,  to  save  his 
soul  and  to  make  him  participate  in  the  worship  of  their 
church,  but  the  redoubtable  Calvinist  would  not  yield. 
Williams  was  the  most  important  capture  of  the  year,  and 


80  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

the  Governor,  Vaudreuil,  bought  him  of  his  captors  and 
had  him  brought  to  Montreal.  He  changed  his  tattered 
clothes  for  new  ones  and  lodged  him  in  his  own  house 
and  was,  as  the  minister  expressed  it,  "in  all  respects  re- 
lating to  my  outward  man  courteous  and  charitable  to 
admiration."  But  he  was  held  a  prisoner,  until  after 
three  years  of  captivity  he  was  exchanged  and  returned 
to  his  post  at  Deerfield. 

During  his  captivity  he  was  constantly  watched  lest 
he  should  speak  to  other  prisoners  and  prevent  their  con- 
version. It  was  the  constant  endeavor  of  the  priests  to 
turn  the  captives,  especially  the  younger  ones,  into  Catho- 
lics and  Canadians.  In  this  they  were  by  no  means  un- 
successful.   It  was  a  sore  point  with  this  rigid  Protestant. 

"Sometimes,"  he  writes,  "they  would  tell  me  my  chil- 
dren, sometimes  my  neighbors,  were  turned  to  be  of  their 
religion.  Some  made  it  their  work  to  allure  poor  souls 
by  flatteries  and  great  promises,  some  threatened,  some 
offered  abuse  to  such  as  refused  to  go  to  church  and  be 
present  at  the  mass ;  and  some  they  industriously  con- 
trived to  get  married  among  them.  These,  their  endeavors 
to  reduce  to  popery,  were  very  exercising  to  me." 

And  they  came  closely  home  to  him.  His  son,  Samuel, 
about  sixteen  years  old,  had  been  kept  at  Montreal  under 
the  tutelage  of  a  priest  of  St.  Sulpice.  A  letter  was 
brought  to  him  from  this  son,  in  which  the  latter  related 
with  satisfaction  and  many  particulars  the  deathbed  con- 
version of  two  New  England  women.  At  the  same  time 
the  father  was  informed  that  the  son  had  ardently  em- 


THE  DREAM  OF  "NEW  FRANCE."         81 

braced  the  Catholic  faith.  It  was  a  sorry  stroke.  "Oh, 
I  pity  you.  I  mourn  over  you  day  and  night.  Oh,  I  pity 
your  weakness  that  through  the  craftiness  of  man  you 
are  turned  from  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel,"  wrote  the 
father  to  his  erring  son,  at  the  same  time  expounding  to 
him  the  infallible  truth  of  Calvinism  and  the  damnable 
errors  of  Rome. 

Whether  by  reason  of  this  letter,  or  otherwise,  his 
conversion  seems  to  have  set  lightly  on  the  soul  of  Sam- 
uel. He  was  ultimately  exchanged,  returned  to  Deerfield, 
and  got  on  so  well  with  his  Protestant  neighbors  that  he 
was  chosen  town  clerk  in  1713. 

Eunice,  the  youngest  daughter,  eight  years  old  at  the 
time  of  the  capture,  a  bright  child,  was  very  clear  to  her 
father.  She  was  taken  to  the  mission  St.  Louis.  Two 
years  later  Williams  wrote  that  she  was  still  there,  that 
she  had  forgotten  her  English,  and  to  his  greatest  grief 
had  forgotten  her  catechism.  Eunice  grew  up  in  the 
Indian  mission,  adopted  the  life  and  manners  as  well  as 
the  costume,  of  her  captors,  and  at  the  proper  age  was 
married  to  an  Indian  of  the  tribe,  who  thereupon  took  the 
name  of  Williams.  Many  years  after,  and  after  her 
father's  death,  she  came  with  her  husband  and  two  chil- 
dren on  a  visit  to  Deerfield  "dressed  as  a  squaw  and 
wrapped  in  an  Indian  blanket."  She  was  treated  with 
consideration  by  her  relatives,  "she  and  her  husband  were 
offered  a  tract  of  land  if  they  would  settle  in  New  Eng- 
land, but  she  positively  refused,  saying  that  it  would  en- 
danger her  soul.     She  lived  to  a  great  age,  a  squaw  to 


82  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

the  last."  Her  case  was  by  no  means  an  exceptional  one. 
This  incident  illustrates  the  spirit  and  the  manners  of  the 
times. 

To  the  imaginative  mind  the  occupancy  of  the  French 
on  the  American  continent  in  the  earlier  eighteenth  cen- 
tury presented  a  dazzling  picture.  Holding  the  mouths 
of  the  two  great  rivers,  the  St.  Lawrence  in  the  northeast, 
through  which  the  Great  Lakes  poured  their  mighty 
waters  to  the  sea,  and  the  Mississippi  in  the  southwest, 
which,  with  its  tributaries,  drained  more  territory  than 
any  other  river  in  the  world,  claiming  and  in  a  manner 
holding  all  the  vast  interior,  the  one  strong  competitor 
being  confined  to  a  strip  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  to  the 
east  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  and  maintaining  her 
claims  and  her  possessions  with  ever  ready  dash  and 
spirit,  New  France  indeed  seemed  a  dominating  power. 

To  the  enthusiastic  son  of  France  the  picture  certainly 
gave  promise  of  empire.  If  cold  reason  suggested  that 
the  wild  tracts  of  country  were  too  vast  for  their  method 
of  occupation,  the  assertion  of  the  red  man  too  evanescent 
to  be  built  upon,  and  that  permanency  of  possession  could 
only  be  hoped  for  through  a  miracle,  the  devoted  French- 
man would  have  answered.  "And  why  not  a  miracle?" 
Was  not  their  daily  life  a  miracle?  How,  but  by  miracle, 
could  they  traverse  the  wild  forest  in  safety  ?  The  blood- 
thirsty savage,  swinging  his  murderous  tomahawk, 
dropped  his  weapon  when  his  eye  fell  upon  the  crucifix. 
Theirs  was  the  true  religion  and  the  true  God.  By  the 
command  of  their  true  God  they  carried  His  religion  to 


THE  DREAM  OF  "NEW  FRANCE:'         83 

his  benighted  children.  This  was  their  appointed  mis- 
sion. It  attended  the  courier  and  the  soldier  as  well  as 
the  priest.  Why  should  not  a  miracle  protect  their  em- 
pire? 

In  the  continuous  warfare,  however,  between  the 
French  and  the  English,  with  all  her  enterprise  and  gal- 
lantry New  France  was  by  far  the  weaker  power.  In  the 
long  run  the  God  of  Battles  inclines  to  the  side  of  the 
stronger  battalions.  By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury the  inhabitants  of  the  British  colonies  counted  a  mil- 
lion, while  all  the  white  inhabitants  of  New  France  num- 
bered less  than  one  hundred  thousand.  And  England 
held  dominion  of  the  sea! 

Divided  counsels  had  given  French  prowess  many  ad- 
vantages, but  the  sentiment  grew  that  "Canada  must  be 
destroyed."  Then  came  the  energetic  ministry  of  the 
elder  Pitt.  It  organized  its  strength — the  resources  of 
old  England,  the  efficient  aid  of  the  new.  France  sent 
her  gallant  Montcalm.  The  final  struggle  was  on  hand. 
The  contest  was  brave,  its  issue  tragic. 

The  dream  was  dispelled.  It  died,  died  on  the  field 
of  honor,  died  when  Montcalm  wrapped  his  dying  heroism 
in  the  clods  of  the  furrow  plowed  by  British  cannon  balls 
on  the  "Heights  of  Abraham." 

The  dream  of  empire  vanished,  but  its  halo  remains, 
throwing  its  spell  of  romance  over  the  land  of  its  birth 
and  of  its  death.  Look  at  it  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
dreamer.  As  observed  by  Professor  Hinsdale  in  his  his- 
tory of  the  Old  Northwest,  "To  men  like  Champlain, 
Marquette  and  La  Salle,  exploring  New  France  was  a 
poem,  whose  splendor  almost  made  them  forget  the  hard- 
ships and  perils  of  the  exploration." 


OLD-TIME  JOURNALISM. 


(Suggested  bv  looking  over  the  file  of  a  Milwaukee  Newspaper 

for  1843.) 

By  John  Goadby  Gregory. 

When  imagination  craves  a  fresh  gyration, 

Let  your  occupation  be  to  search  a  file 
Of  an  old  newspaper,  and  your  thoughts  will  caper 

As  you  turn  the  pages  and  an  hour  beguile. 

I  have  made  some  sorties  back  among  the  forties, 

Ah,  the    rigor  mortis  stiffened  long  ago 
All  the  busy  fingers  whose  achievement  lingers 

In  those  dusty,  musty  sheets  of  folio! 

How  the  old  reporters  passed  their  dimes  for  quarters ! 

Then  no  rude  exhorters  shouted  "Boil  it  down!" 
For  events  were  fewer  when  the  place  was  newer, 

And  the  earliest  brewer  had  just  struck  the  town. 

The  poor  drudge  who  ranges  wide  among  exchanges, 
And  his  work  arranges  with  a  dab  of  paste 

And  the  proud  reflection  that  a  choice  selection 
Implies  intellection,  enterprise  and  taste, 

Must  have  kept  so  busy  as  to  make  him  dizzy. 
Full  well,  I  wis,  he  would  have  joyed  to  view 

His  scissoration,   still  in  circulation, 

On  an  endless  journey,  like  the  Wandering  Jew. 

Those  old  leader-writers!    They  were  sturdy  fighters, 
And  confirmed  inditers  of  impassioned  prose, 

And  at  all  times  ready  the  state's  helm  to  steady, 
And  to  save  the  people  from  impending  woes. 

Then  they  were  not  able  to  print  "News  by  Cable." 

It  was  miserable  with  no  telegraph. 
When  it  seemed  a  far  go  from  here  to  Chicago, 

And  their  "Late  Dispatches"  make  a  modern  laugh. 

But  the  old  newspapers  were  unswelled  with  vapors, 
And  their  wildest  capers  look  discreet  and  wise 

Beside  the  "Yellows"  which  some  modern  fellows 
Are  bold  to  flaunt  before  the  public's  eyes. 

84 


HORACE  GREELEY. 


By  Gerry  W.  Hazei/ton. 

On  the  old  highway  leading  from  Antrim  to  Nashua 
is  located  the  town  of  Amherst  among  the  hills  of  South- 
ern New  Hampshire.  It  is  a  quiet,  sleepy  old  town,  with 
nothing  to  distinguish  it  from  its  neighboring  towns  ex- 
cept a  level  stretch  of  sandy  soil  which  is  still  known  as 
Amherst  Plain.  It  was  settled  in  the  first  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  by  the  same  class  of  sturdy  emigrants 
who  settled  in  Londonderry  and  in  the  towns  adjacent 
thereto.  They  were  known  as  Scotch-Irish,  but  were  dis- 
tinctly of  Scotch  descent.  Here  on  one  of  the  hillside 
farms  in  a  modest  frame  dwelling  house  Horace  Greeley 
was  born  on  the  3rd  of  February,  181 1,  and  in  the  district 
schools  of  the  neighborhood  he  acquired  his  education. 
But  he  made  the  most  of  his  opportunities.  His  leisure 
hours  were  spent  in  reading,  and  all  the  knowledge  he 
acquired  from  books  was  stored  in  his  retentive  memory, 
so  that  he  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  lad  of  unusual  prom- 
ise. No  better  evidence  of  this  is  needed  than  the  fact 
that  before  he  left  New  Hampshire  for  Vermont,  some 
of  the  leading  men  of  the  neighborhood  proposed  to  pay 
his  way  through  college.  In  speaking  of  the  circumstance 
he  says  :  "I  do  not  remember  that  I  had  then  any  decided 
opinion  or  wish  in  the  premises;  but  I  now  have,  and 
from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  I  thank  my  parents   for 

85 


86  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

their  wise  and  manly  decision.  Much  as  I  have  needed  a 
fuller,  better  education,  I  rejoice  that  I  am  indebted  for 
schooling  to  none  but  those  of  whom  I  had  a  right  to 
ask  and  expect  it." 

The  Greeley  family  seemed  to  have  more  than  its  share 
of  conflicts  with  poverty.  The  Amherst  farm  and  most 
of  the  personal  property  were  sold  by  the  sheriff  for  debt, 
and  the  parents  and  children  gathered  up  the  odds  and 
ends  that  were  left  and  removed  to  West  Haven,  Ver- 
mont. "The  sum  total  of  our  worldly  goods,"  says  Hor- 
ace, "including  furniture,  bedding  and  the  clothes  we 
stood  in,  may  have  been  worth  $200,  but  we  were  never 
without  meal,  meat  and  wood,  and  seldom  without  money." 
It  is  not  surprising  that  the  hardships  and  privations  of 
the  family  should  have  prompted  the  lad  to  abandon  the 
idea  of  becoming  a  farmer.  Fortunately  his  love  for 
newspapers  and  periodicals  developed  into  a  desire  to  be 
a  printer,  and  in  April,  1826,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  he 
entered  a  printing  office  at  Poultney,  Vermont,  where  he 
mastered  the  art  of  setting  type.  Here  he  remained  for 
four  years  and  thereafter  followed  his  trade  for  several 
months  as  he  could  find  employment.  In  August,  1831, 
he  went  to  New  York  with  no  capital  but  his  trade,  a 
sturdy  resolution,  and  ten  dollars  in  his  pocket.  After 
looking  in  vain  for  work  during  several  days,  he  found  a 
job  which  no  one  else  wanted  and  entered  on  his  career  ; 
but  the  way  was  beset  with  difficulties  well  calculated  to 
test  his  strength  of  character  and  purpose.  It  was  similar 
to  the  experience  which  Lincoln  passed  through,  but  in 


HORACE   GREELEY.  87 

his  case,  as  in  Lincoln's,  it  proved  of  incalculable  value 
later  in  life. 

On  the  ioth  day  of  April,  1841,  Mr.  Greeley,  then 
thirty  years  of  age,  issued  the  first  number  of  the  New 
York  Tribune,  and  that  journal  doubtless  exerted  a 
larger  influence  in  molding  public  sentiment  for  the  best 
part  of  two  decades  in  the  non-slaveholding  states  than 
any  other  newspaper  published  in  America.  As  the  editor 
of  the  "New  Yorker,"  "The  Teffersonian"  and  the  "Log 
Cabin"  he  had  become  well  known  as  a  clear  and  power- 
ful political  writer,  and  the  circulation  of  his 
paper  increased  from  year  to  year  as  the  ques- 
tions he  discussed  became  more  and  more  absorb- 
ing. From  185 1  to  the  close  of  the  Lincoln  cam- 
paign the  Tribune  found  its  way  to  more  homes  and  was 
welcomed  by  a  larger  number  of  readers  than  any  other 
political  newspaper  between  the  oceans,  and  its  great 
value  to  the  mass  of  its  readers  was  in  its  editorials.  They 
were  not  the  commonplace  editorials  of  the  commonplace 
writer.  They  were  the  bold  and  masterly  discussions  of 
pending  issues  from  the  Tribune's  standpoint.  They  were 
the  utterances  of  a  mind  stored  with  valuable  data,  a  mind 
which  clearly  comprehended  the  trend  of  events  and  the 
powerful  influences  behind  it.  They  indicated  a  thorough 
grasp  of  the  mighty  problems  of  the  period  and  an  eager 
interest  to  impress  upon  the  readers  of  the  Tribune  the 
views  which  inspired  its  editor. 

Tt  is  moreover  to  be  remembered  that  Mr.  Greeley's 
influence  was  vastly  augmented  by  the  circumstance  that 


88  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

he  was  a  journalist  and  not  a  professional  politician.  He 
had  the  credit  at  that  period  of  being  simply  a  great  edi- 
tor, in  deadly  earnest  to  awaken  his  countrymen  to  a 
higher  sense  of  duty  and  responsibility.  The  Tribune 
was  Greeley's  newspaper  and  it  was  a  power  to  be  reck- 
oned with.  The  eccentricities  of  the  editor,  while  they 
excited  harmless  comment,  never  impaired  his  influence ; 
they  only  emphasized  his  individuality.  In  the  realm  of 
intellectual  resources  he  had  no  peer  in  his  profession, 
particularly  when  we  take  into  account  the  amazing  fund 
of  information  on  which  he  could  draw  at  will.  His 
memory  was  an  encyclopedia  of  detail  knowledge.  There 
was  never  a  time  between  1845  an^  i860  when  his  name 
would  not  have  headed  a  list  of  leading  American  jour- 
nalists selected  by  popular  vote.  This  is  saying  a  good 
deal,  for  the  percentage  of  distinguished  editorial  writers 
was  much  larger  in  that  period  than  it  has  ever  been 
since. 

That  Mr.  Greeley  was  fortunate  in  the  choice  of  a 
calling  cannot  be  questioned.  Indeed,  we  can  hardly 
think  of  him  as  being  at  his  best  in  any  other  profession. 
In  his  sanctum,  with  pen  in  hand,  he  was  a  power  of 
national  importance.  On  the  platform,  or  in  the  forum, 
he  was  outclassed  by  men  who  had  the  gifts  he  lacked, 
and  lacked  the  gifts  he  had.  It  is  true  he  did  occasionally 
respond  to  invitations  from  the  lecture  bureaus,  but  these 
invitations  were  prompted  solely  by  the  reputation  he  had 
won  as  the  editor  of  the  Tribune;  and  it  may  well  be 
doubted  if  he  was  ever  introduced  to  an  audience  except 


HORACE   GREELEY.  89 

as  the  "well  known  editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune." 
That  he  was  proud  to  be  thus  known  may  be  safely  as- 
sumed. In  his  "Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life"  is  this  sig- 
nificant passage:  "And  yet  I  cherish  the  hope  that  the 
journal  I  projected  and  established  will  live  and  flourish 
long  after  I  shall  have  moldered  into  forgotten  dust,  and 
that  the  stone  which  covers  my  ashes  may  bear  to  future 
eyes  the  still  intelligible  inscription,  'Founder  of  the  New 
York  Tribune.'  " 

The  most  formidable  and  elaborate  of  his  productions 
was  the  "American  Conflict,"  in  two  large  volumes.  The 
introductory  portion  of  the  work  is  notably  able  and  vig- 
orous and  the  chapters  devoted  to  the  details  of  the  con- 
flict disclose  the  marvelous  industry  of  the  writer,  but 
they  were  written  too  early  to  be  accepted  in  all  their 
detail  as  history.  The  data  from  which  to  draw  final 
conclusions  were  still  in  a  confused  and  unsettled  state. 
But  the  marvel  is  that  Mr.  Greeley  could  find  time,  with 
all  his  multiplied  engagements,  to  accomplish  such  an 
undertaking. 

His  "Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life"  has  doubtless  ap- 
pealed to  a  larger  circle  of  readers  than  any  of  his  pub- 
lished volumes.  It  is  an  intensely  entertaining  work.  It 
is  crowded  with  interesting  incidents  and  reveals  the 
writer  in  every  phase  of  his  remarkable  career.  His  early 
struggles  with  poverty,  his  persistent  efforts  to  establish 
himself  in  business,  his  domestic  joys  and  sorrows,  his 
friendships,  his  views  upon  almost  every  subject  which 
touches  the  welfare  of  organized  society,  his  high  moral 


90  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

standards,  his  economic  convictions,  his  recollections  of 
the  public  men  of  his  time,  are  all  brought  out  in  such 
a  way  as  to  make  the  volume  a  work  of  absorbing  in- 
terest. It  ought  not  to  be  relegated  to  the  limbo  of 
outworn  literature.  It  is  good  reading  for  the  boys  of 
to-day  as  for  those  of  a  past  generation. 

Unquestionably  Mr.  Greeley's  experiences  in  early  life 
which  revealed  the  hardships  and  trials  of  the  laboring 
classes,  had  an  appreciable  influence  on  his  sympathies 
and  his  convictions  relative  to  social  problems,  but  on  this 
subject  it  is  not  necessary  to  enlarge. 

But  there  was  in  his  nature  a  deeper  fountain  of  sen- 
sibility, which  was  seldom  reached  in  his  ordinary  social 
and  business  relations.  There  were  very  few  men  who 
were  able  to  excite  in  him  any  feeling  beyond  common- 
place friendship.  He  seems,  however,  to  have  cherished 
for  Henry  Clay  a  warm  and  genuine  affection.  He  was  in 
complete  sympathy  with  the  political  views  of  that  states- 
man and  his  admiration  for  him  personally  was  un- 
bounded. He  regarded  his  defeat  in  1844  as  a  national 
calamity  and  for  many  years  continued  to  grieve  over  it. 

It  has  sometimes  excited  surprise  that  he  never  seems 
to  have  taken  any  particular  or  personal  interest  in  the 
public  men  who  hailed  from  his  native  state ;  such  men 
as  Webster  and  Chase  and  Dix  and  Chandler  and  Butler 
and  Hale.  He  doubtless  thought  well  of  them,  but  his 
estimate  was  not  influenced  by  state  pride.  Indeed,  he 
has  left  no  evidence  behind  him  that  he  cared  more  for 
New  Hampshire  than  for  Vermont  or  Massachusetts.    In 


HORACE   GREELEY.  91 

this  respect  he  differed  from  Webster,  who  never  parted 
with  his  love  for  his  old  home. 

But  no  one  can  read  the  chapter  in  his  "Recollections" 
devoted  to  his  dead  children,  or  his  tribute  to  Margaret 
Fuller,  without  realizing  that  he  possessed  a  deeply  tender 
and  affectionate  nature. 

Had  Mr.  Greeley  passed  away  at  the  close  of  the 
campaign  of  i860,  he  would  have  been  assigned  a  place 
in  history  as  unique  and  distinct  and  hardly  less  inter- 
esting than  that  of  Franklin.  He  had  won  the  confidence 
and  admiration  of  a  larger  circle  of  readers  than  any 
other  member  of  his  profession.  He  had  come  to  wield 
an  influence  in  molding  and  guiding  public  opinion  which 
was  universally  recognized. 

Within  sixty  days  after  Lincoln's  election  his  reputa- 
tion and  influence  had  suffered  an  eclipse  like  that  of  the 
sun  at  its  meridian.  It  is  impossible  for  those  of  the 
present  generation  to  comprehend  it.  The  war  spirit  tol- 
erates nothing  short  of  absolute  loyalty.  "He  who  is  not 
for  us  is  against  us"  is  its  uncompromising  dictum. 

The  people  generally  realized  the  trend  of  events,  and 
the  friends  of  the  Union,  while  eagerly  hoping  and  earn- 
estly praying  that  the  war  clouds  might  break  away,  were 
alive  to  the  situation  and  loyally  proclaiming  their  devo- 
tion to  the  national  government  and  their  determination 
to  maintain  its  integrity  at  all  hazards.  It  was  at  this  time 
Mr.  Greeley  wrote  and  published  in  the  Tribune — "The 
dissolution  of  the  Union  would  not  be  the  dreadful  affair 
our  correspondent  thinks.     It  would  be  a  very  absurd  act 


92  PHANTOM   CLUB    PAPERS. 

on  the  part  of  the  seceding  party  and  would  work  great 
inconvenience  and  embarrassment,  especially  to  the  people 
of  the  great  Mississippi  Valley.  In  time,  however,  mat- 
ters would  adjust  themselves  to  the  new  political  arrange- 
ments and  we  would  grow  as  many  bushels  of  corn  to 
the  acre,  and  get  as  many  yards  of  cloth  from  a  hundred 
pounds  of  wool  as  we  do  now."  This  declaration  was 
construed  to  mean  that  Mr.  Greeley  did  not  think  the 
Union  worth  fighting  for.  A  week  later,  on  the  24th  of 
December,  i860,  he  wrote  "Let  the  cotton  states  or  any 
six  or  more  states  say  unequivocally  'We  want  to  get  out 
of  the  Union'  and  prepare  to  effect  their  end  peaceably 
and  inoffensively  and  we  will  do  our  best  to  help  them 
out.  Not  that  we  want  them  to  go,  but  that  we  loathe 
the  idea  of  compelling  them  to  stay." 

Thenceforth  Mr.  Greeley  ceased  to  be  the  great  jour- 
nalist whose  editorials  were  accepted  by  his  readers  with- 
out challenge.  His  leadership  was  no  longer  unques- 
tioned. To  his  readers  he  seemed  like  one  who  had  lost 
his  mental  poise ;  he  had  weakened  at  the  very  moment 
when  courage  and  loyalty  were  in  supreme  demand.  His 
friends  grieved  at  what  they  believed  the  fatal  mistake  of 
his  career,  and  refused  to  follow  him.  It  is  true  the  Tri- 
bune supported  the  administration  in  a  way,  and  occa- 
sionally published  a  loyal  and  telling  editorial,  but  on 
the  whole  its  course  was  eccentric  and  at  times  discordant, 
and  it  is  doubtful  if  the  triumph  of  our  arms  and  the 
preservation  of  the  Republic  were  due  in  any  sense  to 
Greeley. 


HORACE   GREELEY.  93 

Attempts  were  made  at  the  time  and  have  been  made 
since  to  explain  his  attitude.  It  was  attributed  by  many 
to  his  constitutional  abhorrence  of  bloodshed.  "Let  us 
bear  in  mind,"  says  one  of  his  biographers,  "that  there 
lay  at  the  basis  of  his  moral  and  mental  make-up  two 
great  principles  or  sentiments — an  almost  fanatical  pas- 
sion for  liberty  to  all  and  in  all  things,  and  a  morbid 
shrinking  from  the  employment  of  physical  force  and 
especially  bloodshed  even  towards  criminals  convicted  of 
murder." 

But  this  explanation  is  not  only  discreditable  to  his 
manhood,  but  wholly  inadequate.  Substantially  the  same 
sentiments  in  regard  to  the  horrors  of  civil  war  were  en- 
tertained by  the  mass  of  his  neighbors  and  fellow  citizens, 
but  they  were  resolutely  subordinated  to  the  higher  senti- 
ment of  loyalty  to  the  national  government.  There  must 
be  some  better  and  more  satisfactory  explanation. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  after  the  election  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  the  war  clouds  rapidly  thickened  and  it  became 
more  and  more  evident  that  the  leaders  of  the  secession 
movement  were  in  deadly  earnest.  The  outlook  became 
alarming  and  the  friends  of  the  government,  particularly 
in  the  east,  naturally  turned  their  attention  to  the  presi- 
dent-elect. Was  there  reason  to  believe  that  he  possessed 
the  qualifications  for  the  supreme  exigency  ?  The  surface 
indications  were  not  encouraging.  He  was  without  ex- 
perience and  many  of  the  politicians  who  visited  Spring- 
field came  away  with  the  impression  that  he  was  a  typical 
self-made  western  lawyer,  fond  of  telling  stories,  popular 


94  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

as  a  stump  speaker,  a  shrewd  politician  in  local  affairs, 
but  with  no  discoverable  capacity  to  take  the  helm  of 
government  in  such  an  emergency.  Unfortunately  this 
impression  took  possession  of  many  of  the  leading  states- 
men in  New  York,  Washington  and  elsewhere.  Mr. 
Weed,  one  of  the  most  sagacious  and  influential  factors 
in  national  politics,  who  had  visited  Lincoln  and  discussed 
the  situation  with  him  and  the  qualifications  of  men  who 
were  mentioned  for  cabinet  ministers,  came  out  in  De- 
cember in  a  strong  editorial  urging  that  an  attempt  be 
made  to  bring  about  an  amicable  adjustment  of  our  diffi- 
culties. The  editorial  was  vigorously  criticised,  and  at- 
tributed to  various  influences  except  the  right  one.  No 
one  doubted  later  on  the  real  motive  which  had  inspired 
the  editorial. 

Mr.  Greeley,  always  bold  and  pronounced  in  his  views, 
reached  the  conclusion  that  with  Lincoln  in  the  White 
House  the  success  of  the  movement  for  secession  was  as 
certain  as  the  diurnal  revolution  of  the  earth.  He  looked 
upon  the  result  as  foredoomed.  If  others  did  not  agree 
with  him  it  was  because  they  did  not  comprehend  the 
situation.  In  the  end  they  would  learn  that  he  was  right 
and  commend  his  superior  foresight.  He  doubtless 
thought,  as  did  many  others,  that  England  and  France 
would  recognize  the  confederacy  at  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity and  this  tended  to  confirm  his  conviction. 

Impressed  with  these  views  he  simply  responded  to 
the  logic  of  the  situation  as  it  appeared  to  him.  He 
reasoned  that  he  had  a  duty  to  perform — a  duty  to  his 


HORACE   GREELEY.  95 

country,  to  humanity,  to  avert  the  horrors  of  civil  war. 
It  required  courage  to  defy  the  loyal  sentiment  which 
animated  those  about  him,  but  he  believed  the  time  would 
come  when  his  action  would  be  approved  and  his  wisdom 
vindicated.  This  is  the  only  explanation  which  leaves 
him  in  possession  of  his  intellectual  poise  and  the  average 
measure  of  virility  and  courage. 

Could  he  have  foreseen  that  England's  noble  Queen 
would  hold  her  impatient  ministers  in  check,  and  that 
the  man  in  the  White  House  was  wiser  and  greater  than 
his  critics,  it  would  have  been  better  for  his  fame.  He 
should  have  remembered  that  when  the  war  spirit  is  once 
aroused  brave  men  do  not  stop  to  balance  probabilities, 
they  fight ;  and  that  when  the  war  is  over  only  those  who 
have  been  loyal  to  their  flag  and  their  cause,  whatever  the 
result,  are  remembered  with  gratitude.  That  Mr.  Greeley 
realized  this  after  the  struggle  was  over  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned. In  fact,  he  was  never  altogether  himself  after 
the  war.  His  allegiance  to  party  became  less  and  less 
pronounced  and  his  discussion  of  men  and  measures  more 
free  and  independent.  He  supported  Grant  in  the  cam- 
paign of  1868  as  against  Horatio  Seymour,  but  criticised 
his  administration  freely,  and  when  it  became  evident 
that  he  would  be  supported  for  a  second  term  he  united 
with  others  in  a  determined  effort  to  defeat  the  movement, 
and  when  this  failed  he  urged  an  independent  nomina- 
tion. It  is  not  probable  that  he  contemplated  the  possi- 
bility of  being  a  candidate  at  this  time,  but  the  anti-Grant 
sentiment  finally  centered  upon  him  as  on  the  whole  the 


96  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

most  desirable  candidate  and  he  was  nominated  at  the 
convention  of  Liberal  Republicans  held  at  Cincinnati  on 
the  first  of  May,  1872,  with  B.  Gratz  Brown  of  Missouri 
as  his  running  mate. 

In  July  following,  these  nominations  were  ratified  by 
the  Democratic  convention  which  met  at  Baltimore,  and 
the  campaign  was  on.  In  some  respects  it  was  a  unique 
contest,  inasmuch  as  a  large  percentage  of  Mr.  Greeley's 
nominal  supporters  had  no  confidence  in,  and  very  little 
respect  for  his  political  principles,  as  expressed  in  the 
Tribune  from  its  first  issue. 

As  the  campaign  progressed  it  became  evident  that 
the  assaults  on  Grant,  led  by  Sumner  in  the  senate  and  by 
Greeley  in  the  Tribune,  had  exerted  no  appreciable  effect 
on  his  standing  with  the  people.  He  was  still  the  illus- 
trious soldier  who  had  led  our  armies  to  victory,  and  his 
friends  did  not  believe  him  capable  of  "trampling  on  the 
Constitution  or  indulging  in  transgressions  threatening 
the  very  life  of  our  free  institutions"  as  recklessly  and 
absurdly  charged. 

In  August  Mr.  Greeley's  friends  persuaded  him  to 
take  the  stump.  On  the  14th  of  that  month  he  addressed 
a  large  and  enthusiastic  audience  at  Portland,  Maine. 
In  September  he  appeared  at  Pittsburg,  Cincinnati,  Louis- 
ville, Jeffersonville  and  Indianapolis,  and  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  his  speeches  rank  with  the  ablest  that 
have  ever  been  made  by  a  presidential  candidate.  But  it 
was  impossible  to  turn  the  tide  that  was  setting  in  for 
Grant.    All  the  states  save  Maryland,  Georgia,  Kentucky, 


HORACE   GREELEY.  97 

Tennessee,   Missouri  and  Texas  gave  the  great  general 
their  electoral  vote. 

It  is  easy  to  say  that  Mr.  Greeley's  heart  was  broken 
by  his  defeat ;  but  nothing  could  be  more  absurd.  It  was 
not  his  defeat  that  carried  him  off.  It  was  the  burden 
of  a  campaign  which  he  was  in  no  condition  physically  to 
undertake  and  which  his  friends  should  not  have  laid 
upon  him.  For  a  lifetime  he  had  done  double  duty.  His 
labors  had  been  excessive  and  unceasing  for  fifty  years. 
His  published  volumes,  and  they  were  quite  numerous, 
represent  so  small  a  share  of  the  sum  of  his  writings  that 
they  are  scarcely  appreciable  in  estimating  his  work.  His 
nights,  as  well  as  his  days,  were  freely  given  to  his  pro- 
fession. Rest  and  recreation  were  to  him  words  without 
meaning,  and  so  at  the  early  age  of  sixty-one,  weary  and 
worn  and  broken  in  health,  he  retired  to  a  private  sani- 
tarium to  spend  the  brief  remnant,  and  it  was  very  brief, 
of  a  ''busy  life." 

"Then  one  day,"  says  Mr.  James,  "there  came  the 
authentic  report  that  he  had  broken  down  completely ; 
that  he  was  practically  unconscious ;  that  his  mind  was 
gone ;  that  in  his  semi-coherent  moments  he  muttered 
something  about  the  Tribune.  A  few  days  later  we 
learned  that  he  had  passed  away."  He  died  on  the  29th 
of  November,  1872. 

His  death  was  universally  mourned.  All  sections  of 
our  country  paid  touching  tribute  to  his  memory.  The 
tragic  pathos  of  his  passing  touched  all  hearts  and  oblit- 
erated   every    trace    of    political    or    personal    prejudice. 


98  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

More  than  forty  thousand  people  visited  the  City  Hall 
to  view  the  remains  of  one  they  had  loved  and  honored, 
a  majority  of  whom  were  from  the  humbler  walks  of 
life.  They  realized  that  they  had  lost  a  friend.  A  more 
spontaneous  manifestation  of  universal  sorrow  in  the  city 
where  he  had  lived  so  long  had  seldom,  if  ever,  been  seen. 

I  shall  be  pardoned,  I  am  sure,  for  referring  very 
briefly  to  my  personal  recollections  of  this  distinguished 
son  of  my  native  state.  I  first  saw  him  when  I  was  a 
lad.  It  was  in  the  campaign  of  1844,  when  he  visited  New 
Hampshire  in  the  interest  of  Henry  Clay,  his  ideal  states- 
man. It  was  before  the  days  of  rapid  transit,  and  he  was 
late  in  arriving  at  the  church,  or  "meeting  house,"  as  it 
was  called,  where  a  large  audience  had  assembled  to  see 
and  hear  him,  for  his  oddities  of  dress  and  manners  were 
then  well  known.  I  recall  the  scene  as  he  entered  the 
church  and  passed  along  the  aisle  to  the  platform  in  front 
of  the  desk.  Every  one  was  anxious  to  see  him,  and 
curiosity  was  mingled  with  pleasure  in  the  greeting  which 
his  appearance  called  forth.  He  was  then  but  thirty-three 
years  of  age,  but  he  looked  to  me  much  older,  and  I  recall 
that  he  was  introduced  to  the  audience  as  the  well  known 
editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune.  The  fact  is,  that  his 
paper  even  then  had  a  large  circulation  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  every  reader  of  his  editorials  was  anxious  to 
see  him,  and  the  old  white  coat  and  slouch  hat  and  shamb- 
ling gait  awakened  general  delight.  His  favorite  candi- 
date failed  to  carry  the  state,  but  this  was  not  the  fault 
of  Mr.  Greeley.     I  saw  him  again  after  several  years  of 


HORACE   GREELEY.  99 

varied  experience  and  wider  culture  had  expanded  his 
mental  resources.  It  was  at  Schenectady  in  the  early 
fifties  when  he  appeared  before  a  large  audience  in  the 
lecture  course  of  the  season  and  read  a  very  interesting 
and  thoughtful  address  on  the  course  of  instruction  then 
pursued  in  our  colleges  and  higher  institutions  of  learn- 
ing ;  claiming  that  it  was  not  what  it  ought  to  be  in  that 
it  failed  to  qualify  young  men  for  the  practical  and  in- 
dustrial duties  of  life,  and  stated  by  way  of  illustration 
that  there  were  5,000  college  graduates  in  New  York  City 
who  did  not  know  at  night  where  they  would  get  their 
breakfast  in  the  morning.  Their  education  had  failed 
to  teach  them  how  to  earn  their  bread.  As  one  contem- 
plates the  changes  which  have  been  introduced  in  many 
of  these  institutions  in  recent  years,  it  is  only  natural  to 
reflect  that  his  influence  may  have  been  a  factor  in  stimu- 
lating the  reform. 

At  the  Chicago  convention  which  nominated  Lincoln 
in  i860,  he  was  the  most  prominent  figure  on  the  ground  ; 
that  is  to  say,  there  were  more  people  curious  to  see  him 
than  any  other  delegate  in  the  convention.  Crowds  gath- 
ered about  him  in  the  hotel,  and  people  in  the  galleries 
asked  to  have  him  pointed  out.  An  incident  occurred 
early  after  the  convention  was  organized  which  excited 
no  little  interest.  He  was  seated  with  the  delegation  from 
Oregon  by  virtue  of  a  proxy  from  one  of  the  Oregon  dele- 
gates, and  had  submitted  a  motion  which  he  supported 
with  a  few  remarks,  when  some  delegate  took  the  floor 
to  oppose  the  motion,  and  referred  to  Mr.  Greeley  as  the 


100  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

distinguished  gentleman  from  Oregon,  which  occasioned 
considerable  merriment.  The  moment  he  took  his  seat 
Mr.  Greeley  sprang  to  his  feet  and  in  his  falsetto  voice 
declared  that  "The  gentleman  from  Delaware  or  Rhode 
Island  or  some  other  place  unknown  to  me  has  evidently 
failed  to  comprehend  my  motion."  The  quick  retort  was 
heartily  appreciated  and  applauded.  On  that  occasion 
I  saw  him  at  close  range  and  it  seemed  to  me  he  had 
aged  perceptibly  since  I  had  last  seen  him. 

In  1863,  I  think  it  was,  he  happened  to  be  in  Madison 
during  our  Republican  state  convention,  and  was  invited 
to  appear  and  address  the  convention,  and  I  well  remem- 
ber how  the  interest  of  the  delegates  was  excited  by  his 
amazing  familiarity  with  our  local  politics  and  our  ex- 
periences in  certain  counties,  which  he  named,  in  enforcing 
the  draft. 

No  one  can  study  his  remarkable  career  without  recog- 
nizing his  strong  personality.  He  was  in  no  sense  com- 
monplace. He  thought  for  himself  and  assumed  respon- 
sibility for  all  his  utterances.  He  expressed  no  opinion 
on  any  subject  which  he  did  not  stand  ready  to  defend. 
His  convictions  were  sincere  and  he  believed  in  them  and 
followed  where  they  led.  His  readers  accepted  his  views, 
not  only  because  they  were  presented  with  ability,  but 
because  they  believed  him  to  be  honest  and  sincere.  He 
parted  from  his  friends  when  he  saw  the  approach  of  the 
Civil  war,  but  he  believed  he  was  right  and  dared  to  follow 
his  convictions.  And  when  we  compare  such  men  with 
the  office-seeking  trimmers  and  self-serving  politicians  so 


HORACE  GREELEY.  101 

much  in  evidence  we  instinctively  accord  them  a  measure 
of  admiration,  even  though  we  may  not  approve  their 
every  act. 

Another  prominent  characteristic  was  his  abhorrence 
of  dishonesty.  Personal  integrity  was  what  he  studied 
to  maintain  and  what  he  demanded  in  others.  He  recog- 
nized it  as  a  basis  of  social  order  as  well  as  of  personal 
standing  and  respectability.  He  demanded  it  in  public 
officials.  In  1846  he  was  elected  to  Congress  to  fill  out 
the  unexpired  term  of  one  David  S.  Jackson,  who  had 
been  unseated  because  his  election  had  been  secured  by 
the  vote  of  the  paupers  domiciled  in  the  almshouse  on 
Blackwell's  Island.  He  ascertained  that  members  of 
Congress  had  been  in  the  habit  of  drawing  mileage  over 
circuitous  and  unfrequented  routes.  He  obtained  the 
facts  from  an  authentic  source  and  published  them  in 
detail  in  the  Tribune.  To  say  that  he  stirred  up  a  hornet's 
nest  would  be  to  define  his  achievement  in  the  mildest 
language  possible.  He  at  once  became  "Anathema 
Maranatha"  with  the  offended  members,  and  it  may  be 
said  that  their  anger  was  in  no  respect  appeased  by  the 
fact  that  the  public  endorsed  and  applauded  Greeley  for 
exposing  the  graft.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  it  was  not 
the  graft  but  the  exposure  which  excited  their  indig- 
nation. 

It  required  courage  and  a  dominating  sense  of  duty  to 
take  such  a  step,  but  these  were  Mr.  Greeley's  inspiration 
from  boyhood ;  and  after  all,  it  is  such  men  who  win  our 
confidence  and  respect.     His  exposure  of  graft  in  the  in- 


102  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

stance  just  referred  to,  is  mentioned  only  as  a  typical  act. 
It  was  in  line  with  his  life  long  record.  Never  for  one 
moment  did  any  one  who  knew  him  question  his  personal 
integrity  or  expect  him  to  tolerate  the  lack  of  it  in  others. 

A  great  deal  was  said  at  one  time  about  the  political 
alliance  between  Seward,  Weed  and  Greeley,  and  it  is  true 
that  for  many  years  they  worked  together  in  harmony, 
and  that  the  head  of  the  coalition  appropriated  the  honors 
and  profits.  This  circumstance  did  not  trouble  Mr. 
Weed,  because  he  had  no  ambition  for  office  and  found 
pleasure  in  aiding  the  ambitions  of  Seward.  Mr.  Greeley 
was  never  regarded  as  an  office  seeker  in  the  ordinary 
sense  of  the  word,  but  he  came  to  feel  that  Mr.  Seward 
might  have  assisted  him  when  he  needed  help  by  having 
him  appointed  to  some  one  of  the  lucrative  federal  offices 
in  the  city.  There  is  no  evidence  that  he  ever  suggested 
that  he  would  like  such  an  appointment,  but  it  evidently 
grieved  him  that  Mr.  Seward  had  never  thought  it  worth 
his  while  to  interview  him  on  the  subject.  His  letter  to 
the  senator,  written  on  the  nth  of  November,  1854,  an- 
nouncing the  dissolution  of  the  political  firm  of  Seward, 
Weed  and  Greeley,  indicates  very  clearly  that  Mr.  Greeley 
deeply  felt  that  his  services  as  a  member  of  the  firm  had 
not  been  appreciated.  The  letter  is  thoroughly  character- 
istic and  discloses  strong  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  writer. 
That  it  was  ever  answered  there  is  no  reason  to  believe, 
but  that  Mr.  Seward  understood  he  could  no  longer  count 
on  Mr.  Greeley's  support  may  be  assumed.    Whether  such 


HORACE  GREELEY.  103 

support  would  have  been  of  any  service  in  i860  cannot  be 
known,  but  there  is  not  much  ground  to  believe  it  would. 

But  Mr.  Greeley's  hold  upon  the  esteem  and  good  will 
of  his  fellow  citizens  was  enhanced  by  his  consistent 
advocacy  of  hopeful  reforms.  Right  or  wrong,  he  was 
believed  to  be  a  sincere  and  earnest  champion  of  the  in- 
terests of  the  common  people.  His  own  struggles  and 
experiences  brought  him  into  touch  with  the  sons  of  toil, 
and  every  suggestion  looking  to  the  betterment  of  their 
condition  appealed  to  him.  At  one  period  of  life  he  was 
charged  with  an  inclination  to  favor  all  the  isms  afloat 
and  there  was  some  ground  for  the  charge,  but  no  one 
doubted  that  his  motives  were  of  the  best.  He  hated  op- 
pression in  all  its  forms,  and  the  great  powers  of  his  mind 
were  for  years  leveled  at  the  encroachments  of  the  slave 
power,  and  the  menace  to  our  free  institutions  which 
lurked  in  their  trail.  In  was  his  attitude  on  this  subject 
as  much  as  any  one  thing  which  prompted  the  remark 
that  "Mr.  Greeley  was  first  among  those  who  have  made 
newspapers  great  controlling  organs  of  opinion.'*  It  is 
only  fair  to  say  that  while  he  differed  with  the  great  mass 
of  loyal  people  as  to  the  duty  of  preserving  the  govern- 
ment by  force  of  arms  and  at  whatever  cost,  no  one 
doubted  the  sincerity  of  his  convictions  or  the  integrity 
of  his  motives.  It  is  said  he  was  opinionated,  and  this  is 
true,  but  such  men  have  a  right  to  be  opinionated.  They 
mold  public  sentiment.  They  are  leaders  of  thought  and 
must  have  stable  convictions  or  lose  their  influence.  He 
grasped  the  problems  of  statecraft  with  the  eagerness  and 


104  PHANTOM   CLUB    PAPERS. 

relish  of  a  master,  and  at  the  same  time  his  ear  was  quick 
to  hear  and  to  heed  the  faintest  cry  of  the  weak,  the  un- 
fortunate and  the  distressed ;  and  while  he  will  be  re- 
membered as  the  founder  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  he 
will  also  be  remembered  for  his  tireless  energy,  for  his 
broad  human  sympathies,  for  his  marvelous  intellectual 
resources,  for  his  high  ethical  standards — in  a  word,  for 
those  qualities  which  give  him  rank  among  the  self-made 
men  whose  achievements  shed  luster  on  the  Republic. 


A  COURT  THAT  KEPT  THE  FAITH. 


By  John  B.  Winslow. 

It  is  not  pleasant  for  one  who  (even  without  good 
reason  therefor)  has  for  years  deemed  himself  a  fairly 
respectable  citizen,  or  at  least  has  supposed  that  the  con- 
trary had  not  been  found  out,  to  awake  suddenly  to  the 
fact  that  he  is  regarded  by  his  fellow  citizens  not  merely 
as  an  undesirable  citizen,  but  as  an  oligarch. 

Such  was  the  writer's  uncomfortable  experience  some 
few  months  since  when  he  received,  through  the  courtesy 
of  the  publishers  or  the  author,  or  both,  a  copy  of  a  new 
book,  entitled  "Our  Judicial  Oligarchy." 

Careful  perusal  of  the  work  with  this  fearsome  title 
convinced  me  that  my  worst  fears  were  realized.  I  had 
ventured  for  many  years,  like  little  wanton  boys  who 
swim  on  bladders  on  a  sea  of  glory,  but  far  beyond  my 
depth.  The  unsubstantial,  not  to  say  positively  disrepu- 
table, character  of  my  claims  to  the  respect  or  confidence 
of  my  fellow  citizens  had  been  discovered,  the  mask  had 
been  ruthlessly  torn  off,  and  I  stood  pilloried  and  defense- 
less before  the  eyes  of  a  pitiless  and  contemptuous  world, 
with  the  revolting  word  "Oligarch"  written  upon  my 
brow. 

Fearing  that  some  of  my  present  hearers  have  not 
kept  up  their  classics,  and  so  may  not  fully  appreciate  the 
gravity  of  the  situation,  I  hasten  to  transcribe  here  a  brief 

105 


106  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

ilefinition  of  an  oligarchy,  as  given  by  a  very  respectable 
encyclopedia.  It  runs  thus :  "A  term  applied  by  Greek 
political  writers  to  that  perversion  of  an  aristocracy  in 
which  the  efforts  of  the  dominant  and  ruling  party  are 
chiefly  devoted  to  their  own  aggrandizement  and  the  ex- 
tension of  their  powers  and  privileges.  Thus  it  bears  the 
same  relation  to  Aristocracy  that  despotism  does  to  Mon- 
archy and  Ochlocracy  does  to  Democracy."  I  decline  to 
define  Ochlocracy;  this  address  may  perhaps  be  printed, 
and  it  is  best  to  leave  something  to  the  imagination. 

I  confess  as  I  reflected  upon  my  past  life  and  its  visi- 
ble results  it  did  not  seem  to  me  that  I  had  achieved  any 
startling  success  in  my  nefarious  occupation  as  an  oli- 
garch. For  one  who  has  labored  for  twenty-five  years  to 
aggrandize  himself  and  extend  his  powers  and  privileges, 
the  results  seemed  astonishingly  meagre.  Clearly  they 
would  not  justify  me  in  recommending  the  profession  of 
Oligarchy  to  earnest  young  men  who  are  yearning  for  op- 
portunity to  live  in  the  lap  of  luxury  at  the  expense  of 
their  fellow  mortals. 

I  do  not  feel  that  I  would  be  justified  in  saying  to  my 
fellow  citizens,  after  the  manner  of  the  boy  in  the  village 
swimming-hole,  "Come  on  in,  the  oligarching  is  fine," 
nor  could  I  honestly  recommend  to  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin even  the  establishment  of  a  course  in  Oligarchery 
(if  I  may  coin  a  word  to  fit  the  occasion). 

However,  in  spite  of  my  ill-success  in  this  interesting 
occupation,  it  is  quite  possible  that  others  have  been  more 
fortunate  in  the  prosecution  of  their  fell  designs, — there 


A  COURT  THAT  KEPT   THE  FAITH.     107 

may  be  people  who  have  made  oligarching  pay,  and  it  is 
never  wise  to  generalize  hastily  from  single  instances. 

On  partially  recovering  from  my  astonishment  (you 
will  note  that  my  recovery  has  been  only  partial, — it  can 
probably  never  be  complete),  the  question  as  to  how  and 
when  I  became  an  oligarch  began  to  interest  me.  I  was 
quite  sure  that  I  was  not  to  the  manner  born.  Paraphras- 
ing the  language  of  the  lamented  Spartacus,  who  will  be 
remembered  by  the  elder  generation  of  my  hearers  at 
least,  "I  was  not  always  a  hired  grafter,  a  savage  chief  of 
still  more  savage  men."  While  my  ancestors  did  not  come 
from  old  Sparta,  they  came  from  old  England,  and  settled 
among  the  barren  rocks  and  windswept  hills  of  Massa- 
chusetts for  the  very  purpose  of  escaping  from  oligarchs 
and  oligarchy,  both  ecclesiastical  and  civil.  They  were 
true  democrats  if  true  democracy  existed  anywhere,  and 
my  own  father,  whose  name  I  always  speak  with  rever- 
ence and  affection,  was  perhaps  the  truest  democrat  of 
them  all. 

If  then  I  was  not  born  an  oligarch  had  I  achieved 
oligarchy,  or  had  it  been  thrust  upon  me?  Much  thought 
has  failed  to  bring  to  me  any  satisfactory  answer  to  these 
questions.  I  find  by  consulting  the  book  of  which  I  have 
spoken  that  the  first  and  foremost  reason  why  American 
judges  are  considered  oligarchs  is  that  they  have  usurped 
the  power  to  declare  laws  unconstitutional.  When  I  be- 
came a  member  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Wisconsin 
twenty-two  years  ago,  I  found  that  court,  in  common 
with  the  other  appellate  courts  of  the  nation,  exercising 


108  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

this  very  great  and  responsible  power;  it  did  not  occur 
to  me  then  that  the  power  had  been  usurped,  and  I  have 
participated  in  its  exercise  since  that  time  without  objec- 
tion. Perhaps  it  might  be  fairly  correct  to  say  in  answer 
to  the  question  as  to  how  I  became  an  oligarch  that,  like 
Topsy,  "I  jest  growed,"  and  let  it  rest  at  that. 

Lest  it  may  be  thought  that  this  paper  is  to  be  con- 
troversial in  its  character,  I  hasten  to  assure  my  hearers 
that  such  is  very  far  from  my  intention.  I  believe  I  ap- 
preciate the  proprieties  of  this  occasion.  This  day,  "most 
calm,  most  bright,"  these  scenes  most  ravishing  and  fair, 
should  not  be  profaned  by  the  raucous  voice  of  the  polit- 
ical orator,  the  wild-eyed  reformer,  or  the  invincible 
standpatter.  We  all  hear  the  "thunder  of  the  captains 
and  the  shouting"  day  by  day  as  we  pursue  our  different 
callings,  but  here  the  "tumult  and  the  shouting  dies,"  "far 
off  the  noises  of  the  world  retreat;  the  loud  vociferations 
of  the  street  become  an  indistinguishable  roar."  Here 
are  only  companionship  and  gentle  thoughts,  here  is  the 
supreme  contentment  which  comes  when  friend  looks  in 
the  eye  of  friend  and  reads  there  love  and  trust  and  confi- 
dence, and  knows  that  whether  there  be  speech  or  not 
the  communion  of  hearts  is  constant  and  complete.  And 
so  you  may  all  dismiss  any  fears  which  you  may  have 
entertained  of  being  compelled  to  listen  to  ponderous 
arguments  on  the  mooted  question  whether  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  really  usurped  the  power  to 
pass  authoritatively  and  finally  upon  the  constitutionality 
of  laws.     I  shall  unlimber  no  oratorical  cannon  to-day, 


A  COURT  THAT  KEPT   THE  FAITH.     109 

nor  will  I  let  slip  the  clogs  of  declamatory  war.  I  will 
simply  tell  a  story  of  the  early  history  of  the  state  in  which 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  state  took  a  leading  part.  I 
shall  formulate  no  moral  at  its  close,  nor  even  insist  that 
it  has  any  moral,  though  I  shall  stoutly  maintain  that  it 
is  not  in  any  sense  immoral. 

Whether  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
usurped  the  power  to  declare  laws  unconstitutional,  it 
is  very  certain  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  Wisconsin 
never  did.  When  the  Constitution  of  Wisconsin  was 
framed  the  power  had  been  exercised  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  and  by  the  appellate  courts  of 
the  existing  states  for  many  years,  and  no  one  questioned 
its  existence  or  its  wisdom. 

Our  Constitution  makers  knew  the  fact  very  well  and 
therefore  it  is  unquestionable  that  they  framed  that  docu- 
ment with  the  expectation  that  the  Supreme  Court  thereby 
created  would  finally  decide  upon  the  validity  of  any  law 
which  might  be  attacked  as  unconstitutional.  The  guar- 
antees of  life,  liberty  and  property  which  were  placed  in 
the  instrument  were  placed  there  with  the  confident  belief 
that  the  Supreme  Court  would  guard  them  from  invasion 
under  all  circumstances  however  trying.  The  power  is 
there  as  completely  as  if  it  were  written  in  so  many  words. 
The  first  serious  test  of  the  faithfulness  of  the  Court  to 
its  great  trust  came  but  a  few  years  after  the  organization 
of  the  separate  Supreme  Court,  and  it  is  of  this  that  I 
would  speak. 

Our  Constitution  declared,  as  many  others  have  done 


110  PHANTOM   CLUB    PAPERS. 

both  before  and  since,  that  every  person  is  entitled  to  a 
certain  remedy  in  the  laws  for  all  injuries  and  wrongs,  and 
that  the  legislature  should  pass  no  law  impairing  the  obli- 
gation of  contracts.  It  also  declared  the  common  law  to 
be  in  force  in  this  state  until  altered  or  suspended  by  the 
legislature,  thus  making  a  contract  which  was  good  at 
common  law  good  in  Wisconsin,  unless  prohibited  or  af- 
fected in  some  way  by  some  previously  existing  statute, 
and,  if  good,  not  subject  to  impairment  after  it  was  made. 

The  law  merchant  was  then  a  part  of  the  common 
law ;  negotiable  paper  in  the  hands  of  holders  for  value 
before  due  and  without  notice  of  any  defense  was  binding 
on  the  maker,  however  good  his  defense  might  be  against 
the  original  holder.  This  is  the  principle  which  is  really 
the  basic  principle  of  modern  business.  Commerce,  as  we 
know  it,  could  not  exist  without  it.  Commercial  paper 
must  carry  its  credentials  on  its  face  and  not  be  subject 
to  successful  attack  from  behind  if  it  is  to  exist  at  all. 
A  necessary  corollary  to  this  principle  is  that  securities 
which  have  been  given  as  collateral  to  commercial  paper 
must  enjoy  the  same  protection  from  attack.  It  was 
therefore  absolutely  necessary  that  Wisconsin  should 
adopt  this  principle  if  its  citizens  were  to  transact  bus- 
iness with  the  business  world,  and  if  the  state  expected  to 
become  one  of  the  commercial  commonwealths  of  the 
world,  and  feel  the  pulsations  of  the  great  arteries  of  mod- 
ern trade. 

That  the  Supreme  Court  was  expected  by  the  Consti- 
tution makers  to  defend  this  principle   from  assault  at 


A  COURT  THAT  KEPT  THE  FAITH.     1 1  I 

the  hands  either  of  legislative  or  executive  power  there 
can  be  no  doubt.  The  faithfulness  of  the  Court  to  its 
trust  was  to  be  demonstrated  sooner  than  any  one  could 
have  anticipated. 

The  great  wave  of  railroad  building  in  Wisconsin  in 
the  early  fifties  is  matter  of  history  too  well  known  to  be 
dwelt  upon  at  length.  So  also  is  the  panic  of  1857,  which 
followed  upon  its  heels  and  prostrated  the  business  of  the 
state  and  nation  for  years.  The  epidemic  of  railroad 
building  had  brought  with  it  high  finance.  Glowing  pros- 
pectuses of  the  new  highways  of  commerce,  accompanied 
by  confident  assurances  of  dividends,  were  circulated  by 
glibmouthed  agents  all  through  the  southern  and  eastern 
parts  of  the  state,  and  both  private  citizens  and  communi- 
ties caught  the  fever  and  subscribed  for  stock.  Munici- 
palities mortgaged  their  futures  for  many  years  by  giving 
municipal  bonds  for  stocks ;  citizens,  and  especially 
farmers,  near  whose  lands  the  projected  road  was  ex- 
pected to  pass,  gave  their  negotiable  notes  secured  by 
mortgages  upon  their  farms,  radiant  in  the  belief  that 
they  would  not  only  reap  large  dividends  from  the  stock, 
but  also  increase  very  greatly  the  value  of  their  farms. 
The  notes  and  mortgages  were  at  once  negotiated  in  the 
east  by  the  railroad  companies  to  obtain  money  to  build 
the  roads ;  in  some  cases  the  roads  were  built,  in  some 
cases  they  were  never  built,  but  whether  the  road  was 
built  or  not  the  farmer  got  nothing  tangible  for  his  note 
and  mortgage. 

The  great  financial  storm  of  1857  and  the  following 


112  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

years  sent  every  railroad  into  bankruptcy,  wiped  out 
every  dollar  of  stock,  and  left  the  farmers  to  view  as  best 
they  might  the  prospect  of  abandoning  their  farms  to  the 
mortgagees  or  working  for  years  to  pay  a  debt  which 
represented  no  value  received.  In  many  cases  it  spelled 
ruin  to  the  farmer,  and  if  not  ruin,  at  least  years  of  hard- 
ship. The  appeal  to  the  sympathy  was  strong,  and  the 
principle  that  a  contract  must  not  be  impaired  seemed  a 
hard  proposition  to  enforce  under  such  circumstances.  It 
was  like  giving  a  stone  when  one  is  asked  for  bread. 

The  struggle  to  evade  payment  of  the  bonds  and  notes, 
both  public  and  private,  soon  began ;  there  was  a  general 
consensus  of  opinion  that  some  way  ought  to  be  found, 
nay,  that  some  way  must  be  found  to  defeat  both  the 
municipal  bonds  and  the  farm  notes  and  mortgages.  Pay- 
ments of  interest  ceased,  and  foreclosures  were  first 
threatened  and  then  actually  begun.  The  attorneys  for 
the  mortgagors  generally  set  up  two  defenses,  (i)  that 
the  railroad  companies  had  no  power  to  sell  their  stock 
for  anything  but  cash,  and  (2)  that  the  notes  and  mort- 
gages were  secured  by  means  of  fraudulent  representa- 
tions ;  but  under  the  law  of  negotiable  paper  the  second 
defense  was  of  no  avail  against  bona  fide  holders  of  the 
notes  and  mortgages,  who  took  them  before  due,  while 
the  first  defense  was  plainly  no  defense  at  all.  All  the 
holders  were  bona  fide  holders  before  due,  or  at  least  the 
farmers  could  not  prove  otherwise,  hence  it  seemed  ap- 
parent that  the  notes  and  mortgages  were  all  protected 


A  COURT  THAT  KEPT  THE  FAITH.     113 

by  the  constitutional  provision  which  prevented  the  im- 
pairment of  contracts. 

Nevertheless  the  appeal  to  the  legislature  was  made, 
and  made  successfully.  When  six  thousand  farmers 
spoke  in  one  voice  and  demanded  legislative  help,  the 
voice  was  by  no  means  a  still,  small  voice,  but  a  very  loud 
and  compelling  voice.  The  legislature  heard  this  voice 
and  by  Chapter  49  of  the  laws  of  1858  declared  in  sub- 
stance that  in  all  actions  brought  to  enforce  the  mort- 
gages, commonly  called  farm  mortgages,  given  to  railroad 
or  other  incorporated  companies  as  a  basis  of  credit  or  in 
exchange  for  stock,  the  defense  of  fraud  should  be  avail- 
able, as  well  against  the  assignee  as  against  the  original 
holder,  and  that  no  assignee  thereof  should  be  permitted 
to  claim  that  he  was  an  innocent  holder  without  notice. 

It  seems  very  clear  now  that  this  law  by  its  terms 
impaired  the  obligations  of  existing  contracts,  but  the 
argument  was  then  that  it  only  changed  a  rule  of  evidence. 

The  law  was  soon  tested.  Three  foreclosures  had 
been  brought  to  trial  in  the  Circuit  Courts  in  1859,  in 
which  the  two  defenses  above  named  were  made  and  suc- 
cessfully made,  and  the  cases  were  all  heard  on  appeal 
in  the  Supreme  Court  in  March,  i860,  just  preceding  the 
election  in  which  A.  Scott  Sloan  ran  for  Chief  Justice 
as  a  Republican  nominee  against  Judge  Dixon,  Inde- 
pendent, and  was  defeated  by  the  narrow  majority  of 
about  400  votes.  This  campaign  was  a  very  heated  one. 
and  the  great  predominating  issue  was  whether  or  not 
the  Court  should  stand  by  the  extreme  state  rights  posi- 


114  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

tion  which  it  had  taken  in  the  Booth  case  in  defiance  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  The  farm  mortgage 
question  was  raised,  however,  to  this  extent,  namely,  that 
the  partisans  of  each  candidate  claimed  that  his  candi- 
date was  favorable  to  the  law  and  that  the  opposing  can- 
didate was  against  it.  However,  no  authoritative  state- 
ment was  made  or  authorized  by  either  candidate,  and  it 
cannot  be  asserted  with  confidence  that  the  question  cut 
any  figure  in  the  campaign. 

The  cases  were  decided  in  June  and  July,  i860,  and 
both  of  the  supposed  defenses  were  pronounced  worthless. 
Judge  Dixon  treated  the  question  of  the  validity  of  the 
law  of  1858  in  the  case  of  Cornell  vs.  Hichens  in  a  few 
characteristic  sentences,  and  held  that  by  the  transfer  of 
the  notes  and  the  operation  of  the  law  then  in  force  the 
plaintiffs  had  an  immediate  and  vested  right  to  look  to 
the  makers  for  full  payment,  regardless  of  any  equities 
which  existed  as  between  them  and  the  company ;  and 
that  this  right  could  not  in  any  way  be  destroyed  or  im- 
paired by  the  legislature.  This  decision  came  as  a  rude 
shock  to  the  farm  mortgagors.  It  meant  bankruptcy  and 
ruin  to  many  of  them  and  hardship  to  all.  Local  asso- 
ciations had  already  been  formed,  but  now  the  need  of 
concerted  action  was  felt,  and  on  July  12,  i860,  a  state 
convention  was  held  at  Watertown,  which  was  attended 
by  the  victims  of  eight  railroads,  coming  principally  from 
the  rural  districts  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state  and 
representing  twelve  counties. 

At   this   convention   a    state   league   was    formed,   an 


A  COURT  THAT  KEPT  THE  FAITH.     115 

official  paper  established,  and  adjournment  taken  until 
October  following.  The  paper  was  called  the  "Home 
League";  it  was  edited  by  A.  M.  Thomson,  was  a  neat 
four  page  country  weekly,  published  at  Hartford ;  was 
independent  in  politics,  and  its  object  was  to  forward  the 
interests  of  the  League.  The  object  of  the  League  was  to 
influence  public  opinion,  legislatures  and  courts,  if  pos- 
sible, by  showing  a  united  front.  It  is  said  in  the  first 
number  of  the  paper  that  there  were  six  thousand  farm 
mortgagors,  who  represented  about  $5,000,000  of  mort- 
gages. 

The  closing  paragraphs  of  the  leading  editorial  in  the 
first  issue  of  the  League  are  sufficiently  descriptive  of  its 
purpose,  and  are  as  follows : 

"The  Home  League  is  the  farm  mortgagor's  flag!  It 
is  the  olive  branch  to  those  who  desire  peace,  but  the 
gleam  of  the  battle  axe  to  such  as  prefer  war.  That  flag 
has  been  nailed  to  the  mast  by  their  own  brawny  arms, 
and  woe  to  the  kid  gloves  that  essay  to  tear  it  down. 
*  *  *  Does  it  do  any  good  to  ring  the  alarm  bell 
when  the  conflagration  spreads  at  midnight?  Does  it 
do  any  good  to  fire  the  signal  gun  when  the  ship  is  sink- 
ing? Why,  even  wild  horses,  it  is  said,  with  instinctive 
caution,  set  one  of  their  number  to  keep  sentinel  while 
the  herd  is  feeding,  to  give  alarm  of  the  approach  of  dan- 
ger, and  is  it  not  wisdom  in  us  to  put  a  watchman  on  duty 
when  we  know  there  are  robbers  about?  The  rattle- 
snake gives  fair  notice  ere  he  strikes ;  so  beware,  0  stock- 


116  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

jobber,  when  you  hear  the  rattle!    The  fang  follows  the 
warning !" 

This  organization  and  this  newspaper  organ  brought 
together  in  a  compact  body  several  thousand  voters  who 
for  several  years  acted  together  and  dominated  both  par- 
ties so  far  as  the  question  of  farm  mortgages  was  con- 
cerned, and  practically  dictated  to  the  legislature  what 
laws  should  be  passed  on  that  subject. 

The  potency  of  this  movement  was  doubtless  very 
clear  to  the  Supreme  Court  in  June  and  July,  i860.  Judge 
Cole's  term  expired  in  the  following  spring;  a  few  hun- 
dred votes  might  easily  turn  the  scale,  but  neither  the 
Court  nor  Judge  Cole  faltered  in  the  least.  They  had 
solemnly  promised  to  support  the  Constitution  and  they 
did  so  regardless  of  the  probable  effect  of  their  ruling 
upon  the  approaching  election. 

The  decision  in  the  Cornell  case  was  denounced  by 
the  "Home  League,"  by  the  majority  of  the  Democratic 
papers,  and  by  many  of  the  rural  Republican  papers  as 
an  unrighteous  surrender  to  stockjobbers  and  bondhold- 
ers. Some  of  the  leading  papers  of  the  state,  however, 
approved  of  the  decision  on  the  ground  that  any  other 
decision  would  have  amounted  to  repudiation  and  would 
have  effectually  ruined  the  credit  of  the  young  state. 

The  concerted  attack  of  the  farm  mortgagors  upon 
both  the  legislature  and  the  Court  began  in  October,  i860. 
A  second  convention  was  held  at  Watertown  October  9th, 
and  a  committee  appointed  to  prepare  an  address  to  the 
people.     Probably  it  was  not  seriously  expected  that  the 


A  COURT  THAT  KEPT  THE  FAITH.     117 

Supreme  Court  would  reverse  its  former  ruling,  even 
if  Judge  Cole  should  be  defeated  for  re-election,  but  it 
was  important  to  place  a  judge  on  the  bench  in  place  of 
Judge  Cole  who  should  be  in  sympathy  with  the  farm 
mortgagors  when  the  new  legislation  which  they  confi- 
dently expected  to  secure  in  the  session  of  1861  should 
come  before  the  Court.  Denunciation  of  the  Court  was 
therefore  kept  up  in  the  Home  League,  and  it  was  even 
suggested  that  Dixon  ought  to  be  impeached.  The  ad- 
dress was  issued  just  as  the  legislature  was  assembling; 
it  details  the  wrongs  of  the  farm  mortgagors  and  appeals 
for  help  to  the  legislature.  Responding  to  this  appeal, 
the  legislature  passed  in  March  of  that  year  a  wonderful 
act  of  eight  pages  regulating  the  foreclosure  of  mort- 
gages given  for  stock  in  corporations,  which  makes  the 
proceedings  so  long,  laborious  and  uncertain  that  in  ef- 
fect it  takes  away  any  remedy. 

It  would  be  tiresome  to  attempt  even  to  briefly  name 
the  various  delays  and  hindrances  which  this  act  throws 
in  the  way.  Dilatory  motions,  appeals  without  security, 
changes  of  venue,  stays  of  proceedings,  and  all  manner 
of  tedious  and  long  drawn  out  impediments  to  the  course 
of  justice  are  provided  for,  and  it  would  be  a  poor  lawyer 
indeed  who  could  not  delay  the  progress  of  the  action  in 
the  trial  court  for  years;  and  even  after  judgment  in  that 
court  four  years'  time  is  given  to  appeal,  and  a  sale  of  the 
property  prohibited  until  that  time  has  expired,  while  a 
mere  notice  of  appeal  operates  as  a  stay  of  proceedings. 

A  few  members  of  the  legislature  denounced  the  act 


118  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

as  a  bald  attempt  to  nullify  contracts,  but  it  went  through 
with  a  rush ;  both  parties  were  terrorized  by  the  Home 
League  and  little  attention  was  paid  to  the  objecting  mem- 
bers. 

Meantime  the  question  as  to  the  election  of  a  suc- 
cessor to  Judge  Cole  in  April  was  becoming  acute.  On 
February  20th  a  caucus  of  Republican  members  of  the 
legislature  was  held.  Although  Judge  Cole  had  been 
elected  by  a  united  party  in  1855,  and  had  demonstrated 
his  ability,  the  attitude  of  the  farm  mortgagors  so  terror- 
ized the  Republican  legislators  that  they  dared  not  en- 
dorse him  for  re-election,  and  the  caucus  resolved  to  pre- 
sent no  candidate.  Judge  Cole  ran  on  a  non-partisan 
call.  James  H.  Knowlton  of  Janesville  was  called  out 
to  run  against  him,  and  the  campaign  was  on.  It  was 
a  fair  issue  between  repudiation  of  private  debts  and 
obedience  to  the  Constitution. 

Judge  Cole  had  taken  his  position  to  the  effect  that 
the  Constitution  must  be  obeyed.  Mr.  Knowlton  had  at- 
tacked the  decision  in  the  farm  mortgage  cases  in  news- 
paper articles,  in  which  he  argued  that  corporations  had 
no  power  to  take  notes  and  mortgages  in  payment  for 
stock ;  so  it  was  known  where  each  candidate  stood.  There 
was  considerable  vigorous  campaigning  by  the  farm  mort- 
gagors. In  some  precincts  in  the  farm  mortgage  districts 
Judge  Cole  received  no  votes  at  all ;  for  a  number  of  days 
it  seemed  that  Knowlton  was  elected,  but  as  the  returns 
from  the  north  and  northwest  came  in  the  complexion 


A  COURT  THAT  KEPT   THE  FAITH.     119 

of  the  result  changed,  and  Judge  Cole's  final  majority  was 
something  over  5,000  votes. 

The  good  sense  of  the  state  had  triumphed  and  fidelity 
to  the  Constitution  had  been  rewarded,  but  only  after  a 
bitter  contest  and  a  campaign  which  Judge  Cole  could 
ill  afford  to  make. 

The  act  of  1861  was  held  unconstitutional  when  it 
came  before  the  Court  in  the  January  term,  1862,  and 
Judge  Cole  wrote  the  opinion.  Other  laws  were  passed 
in  1863,  1864  and  1867,  intended  to  make  foreclosures 
difficult  or  to  make  jury  trials  obligatory  and  the  verdicts 
conclusive,  but  they  were  successively  held  unconstitu- 
tional, the  final  opinion  being  written  by  Judge  Byron 
Paine  at  the  June  term,  1868. 

Here  the  efforts  of  the  legislature  to  relieve  the  farm 
mortgagors  seem  to  have  ended  in  what  might  be  called 
complete  failure.  This  conclusion,  however,  would  hardly 
be  an  accurate  one.  It  is  true  that  the  relief  laws  had  all 
been  set  aside,  but  still  they  had  been  of  some  practical 
effect.  While  on  the  statute  books  they  had  undoubtedly 
served  as  a  club  under  the  fear  of  which  many  holders 
of  mortgages  had  deemed  it  best  to  settle  their  claims  at 
a  reduction  and  sometimes  a  considerable  reduction  from 
the  face  value.  Probably  not  many  of  the  farmers  paid 
dollar  for  dollar  of  the  principal  and  interest  of  their 
mortgages,  and  some  secured  very  favorable  settlements. 

In  reviewing  this  contest  one  cannot  help  sympathiz- 
ing with  the  farm  mortgagors  in  their  efforts  to  escape 
payment  of  debts  which   represented  little  or  no  value, 


120  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

but  the  object  of  this  paper  is  to  bring  significantly  to  the 
memory  the  fact  that  in  a  time  of  great  public  clamor,  and 
when  threatened  with  official  death,  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Wisconsin  hewed  exactly  to  the  line,  regardless  of  con- 
sequences to  themselves,  and  faithfully  carried  out  the 
trust  which  had  been  reposed  in  them.  By  that  action, 
and  in  spite  of  repeated  legislative  attempts  to  the  con- 
trary, the  state  was  saved  from  the  stigma  of  wholesale 
repudiation  of  private  debts.  The  Court  could  truly  say 
with  St.  Paul  that  it  had  fought  the  good  fight  and  kept 
the  faith. 


ON  GROWING  OLD. 


By  Neal  Brown. 

We  have  schools  for  man's  first  childhood,  none  for 
his  second.  The  faults  of  youth,  and  of  ripened  man- 
hood are  emphasized  in  age.  The  puppyism  of  youth 
often  hardens  into  the  dogmatism  of  age.  There  are 
faults  due  to  mental  and  physical  decay,  there  are  other 
faults  due  to  lack  of  mental  discipline  or  good  sense, — 
which  lack  may  be  of  an  ancestral  kind.  The  first,  we 
look  upon  charitably,  the  latter  we  do  not  so  easily  forgive. 

Age  is  apt  to  speak  with  its  own  authority,  not  with 
the  authority  of  worth.  Often  the  man  in  years  demands 
more  than  is  his  due.  If  he  has  done  worthy  things,  the 
years  speak  for  him,  but  alone,  the  voice  of  age  has  a 
quavering  sound.  If  he  has  had  full  years  they  will  in 
some  degree,  condone  his  barren  unfruitful  years.  But 
if  he  has  had  no  full  years,  assertion  makes  him  tedious. 
If  he  try  to  make  up  for  the  paucity  of  his  life  by  relating 
supposititious  triumphs, — by  throwing  boquets  at  himself. 
his  friends  will  evade  him. 

We  tolerate  the  vealy  vanities,  the  assertiveness  and 
cock-sureness  of  youth,  but  will  not  allow  these  in  three 
score.  Self  pride  of  a  sort,  is  a  great  character  builder; 
but  of  a  different  quality  is  the  egotism  that  wastes  itself 
in  self  worship,  or  the  pride  that  is  like  the  peacock's 
preening. 


121 


122  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

Usually  a  man's  worthy  actions  are  prompted  by 
mixed  motives.  His  deeds  of  generosity  may  come  be- 
cause of  his  desire  to  build  up  his  own  self  respect,  to 
gain  the  respect  of  others,  or  because  of  humanitarian 
impulse  and  love  of  his  fellow  man.  He  need  not  be  dis- 
paraged because  all  of  these  reasons  combine.  But  now 
and  then  we  meet  a  man  whose  generosity  is  only  another 
form  of  tribute  to  his  own  vanity.  He  will  do  showy 
things  to  make  his  tribute  greater,  but  not  little  deeds  of 
justice  and  forbearance  that  have  no  herald.  He  will  be 
mean  where  meanness  cannot  be  advertised,  generous 
where  his  actions  can  be  proclaimed.  Shakespeare's  ad- 
monition, "To  thine  own  self  be  true,"  has  a  various 
meaning.  Being  true  to  self  may  mean  being  true  to  what 
is  false.  Loyalty  is  not  per  se  a  virtue.  Nero  was  true 
to  self,  but  what  of  that  self? 

The  big  man  of  big  egotisms  has  many  justifications. 
He  has  probably  done  the  things  that  count.  But  the  little 
egotist  of  big  egotisms,  is  offensive,  not  so  much  because 
of  his  egotisms,  as  because  of  his  littleness  and  in- 
efficiency- Often  such  a  one  furnishes  a  paradox.  He 
will  be  afflicted  with  a  subconscious  feeling  that  if  he  do 
not  boast  and  greatly  pretend  he  will  not  convince  others 
that  he  is  all  he  claims, — nay,  not  even  convince  himself. 
Hence,  his  anxious  eagerness  to  conceal  the  truth,  to  over- 
come disbelief.  All  these  vices  may  harden  with  the 
hardening  of  the  arteries.  Should  we  not  then  look  for 
fit  instruction  to  grow  old  manfully  if  not  gracefully? 

But   age   is   apt  to   be   resentful   of   instruction.     On 


ON  GROWING   OLD.  123 

occasion  it  is  fitting  to  tell  a  young  man  that  he  is  an  ass. 
It  may  be  a  useful  part  of  his  education.  But  who  will 
be  brave  enough  to  hold  the  mirror  up  to  nature  at  three 
score  ? 

Sometimes  amusedly,  sometimes  in  contempt,  we  look 
down  upon  garrulous,  noisy  youth,  perceiving  its  lack  of 
serious  purpose,  its  callow  vices,  its  fits  and  starts,  its 
incoherent  nebula  of  thought.  But  judgment  of  youth 
unleavened  by  kindness,  is  unjust.  He  who  takes  the 
judgment  seat  upon  human  frailty  should  think  of  his  own 
follies,  his  own  vices,  his  own  mistakes, — not  only  those 
of  his  youth,  but  those  of  his  age,  and  pray  for  a  humble 
and  contrite  heart.  If  he  has  gained  wisdom,  or  great 
place  or  power  he  will,  in  his  heart  of  hearts,  know  that 
not  to  him  alone  is  the  victory.  He  will  know  that  the 
favor  of  Fortune  is  not  all  due  to  his  worth,  but  in  part 
at  least,  to  chance  and  accident,  and  to  causes  that  he  did 
not  control. 

When  we  grow  rebukeful  of  modern  youth,  we  should 

recall  Tennyson's  tolerant  lines — 

"For  many  a  father  have  I  seen, 
A  sober  man  among  his  boys 
Who  wears  his  manhood  hale  and  green, 
Whose  youth  was  full  of  foolish  noise." 

The  successful  man  is  apt  to  prescribe  the  regimen 
that  he  adopted,  or  that  was  forced  upon  him,  to  aspiring 
vouth  who  may  need  counsel.  Yet  as  there  is  no  royal 
road  to  fortune,  so  there  is  no  patent  method  of  gaining 
success.  The  hut  and  the  palace  have  alike  contributed 
to  the  roll  of  fame.     Pride  of  birth  and  circumstances 


124  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

may  ennoble  men  and  make  them  strong;  so  may  also 
privation  and  hardship.  Yet  while  early  poverty  may 
make  a  man  strong,  it  may  also  embitter  and  narrow  him 
so  that  he  will  be  always  only  half  made  up, — his  useful- 
ness to  the  world  and  to  himself  a  doubtful  thing. 

To  look  from  the  sophisticated  Present  to  the  un- 
sophisticated Past,  makes  great  events  and  heroic  figures 
that  once  held  the  stage,  seem  small.  Where  are  the 
feuds  and  animosities  of  your  youth,  or,  even  those  of 
manhood's  prime?  Time  has  belittled  Homeric  battles 
that  once  echoed  to  the  clouds.  Forty  years  ago  you  and 
Smith  hated  each  other,  and  you  and  Tompkins  took  no 
comfort  in  living  on  the  same  earth  together.  Fifty  years 
ago,  Jones  defeated  you  for  the  office  of  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  or  County  Clerk, — offices  of  meager  honor  and 
emolument.  The  whole  world  seemed  black  and  hopeless 
to  you  when  you  found  that  Jones  was  the  more  popular 
man.  Now  you  laugh  and  jest  with  Smith,  and  Jones, 
and  Tompkins,  and  many  another  disturber  of  your  youth- 
ful peace  and  happiness.  Your  early  loss  came  to  be  your 
great  gain.  If  you  had  been  allowed  to  hold  office,  you 
might  have  become  a  mere  municipal  hired  man  with  the 
hired-man-habit.  If  you  had  gained  the  much-sought 
prize  of  a  seat  in  Congress,  and  had  clung  to  the  place 
long  enough  to  acquire  the  Member-of-Congress-habit, 
you  might  have  become  like  many  another  who  has  gained, 
like  honor, — a  cringing,  fawning,  servile  courtier  of  our 
great  Tyrant, — Public  Opinion.  Be  thankful  that  you 
have  kept  your  manhood. 


ON  GROWING   OLD.  125 

I  would  also  commend  the  motto  which  a  veteran  man 
of  affairs  kept  hung  up  in  his  office, — 

"I  am  an  old  man  and  full  of  troubles,  and  most  of 
them  never  happened." 

With  such  philosophy,  the  man  in  years  may  cheer- 
fully meet  many  oppressions — and  not  the  least  of  these 
will  be  the  oppression  of  evil  laws.     And  yet — 

"How  small,  of  all  that  human  hearts  endure, 
That  part  which  kings  or  laws,  can  cause  or  cure." 

These  thoughts  are  among  the  compensations  of  age. 
But  with  all  its  compensations,  age  has  yet  many  tragedies 
hard  to  endure.  The  old  man  finds  that  many  of  his 
hopes  have  withered ;  that  many  of  his  ambitions  are 
unsatisfied.  He  started  out  in  life  with  great  ambitions 
to  become  a  prime  minister,  a  president,  to  command  the 
applause  of  listening  senates,  to  achieve  great  riches.  He 
slowly  finds  that  his  initial  ambition  can  bear  no  fruit,  and 
that  he  must  be  content  with  little.  He  must  learn  to 
secure  a  degree  of  comfort  in  lowering  his  ambition  to 
second  place,  or  to  third  place,  or  to  no  place  at  all.  But 
age  brings  the  compensation  of  a  better  judgment  of 
values. 

If  a  man  has  grown  in  wisdom  as  in  years,  the  prize 
he  once  longed  for,  has  grown  smaller  and  smaller,  until 
it  seems  unattractive.  Tt  has  lost  its  value  and  cannot 
discontent  him.  Wealth  and  great  place  stand  alike 
condemned.  If,  through  all  disappointments,  he  can  hold 
fast  to  his  ideals  and  retain  the  contented  mind,  the  unem- 
bittered  thought,  and  look  calmly  out  upon  the  uneasy 


126  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

world,  without  censuring  Fortune  for  her  lack  of  favor, 
without  disparagement  or  envy  of  those  who  have  been 
more  successful,  who  shall  say  that  he  has  lost  ? 

Age  may  be  well  spent  in  simple  ways  and  simple  joys, 
in  the  companionship  of  books  and  of  kindly  spirits. 
These  influences  have  power  "to  turn  an  old  man  young." 

John  Burroughs  says  that  the  most  precious  resources 
of  age  are  Nature,  friends  and  books. 

I  have  seen  a  white  haired  ancient,  once  a  notable 
figure  with  rod  and  reel,  creep  into  the  stream  with  falter- 
ing steps,  fumbling  his  tackle  with  trembling  fingers,  his 
eyes  dimmed,  the  light  tackle  all  too  heavy  for  his  abated 
strength,  yet  bravely  venturing  forth,  not  content  to  sit 
by  the  hearthstone  and  accept  the  portion  of  age.  The 
pathos  of  decrepitude  is  emphasized  in  him.  For  he  is 
struggling  to  bring  back  the  love  of  his  unstricken  years — 
the  glory  of  the  stream  and  the  splendor  of  days  that  can 
never  more  return. 

The  youthful  devotee  of  simple  pleasures  may  find  that 
he  has  laid  up  for  the  comfort  of  his  age  a  contented  joy 
that  even  age  cannot  stifle.  More  tragic  is  the  life  that 
has  never  known  these  loves — that  has  narrowed  slowly 
and  inertly  down  through  the  dust  of  its  last  decade,  at- 
taining only  the  status  of  a  human  vegetable.  Such  a 
one  cannot  feel  the  thrill,  the  revolt  against  the  infirmities 
of  age,  the  wild  longing  to  revisit  the  scenes  of  earlier 
devotion,  and  to  live  over  again  the  raptures  of  long  ago. 

Always  should — 

"Manhood's  noonday  shadows  hold 
The  dews  of  boyhood's  morning." 


ON  GROWING   OLD.  127 

Thoreau  could  find  the  contented  mind  in  his  cabin 
on  the  shores  of  Walden  Pond,  even  though  unblest  with 
worldly  goods  or  family  ties.  Father  Damien  found  it 
among  the  lepers.  Stevenson,  ordered  south  under  sen- 
tence of  death,  found  it  on  the  wind-swept  mountain  top 
in  far  off  southern  seas.  Men  and  women  of  the  noblest 
blood  of  France  fled  from  the  guillotine  to  garrets  in 
other  lands,  where  they  spent  their  age  and  earned  their 
bread  in  menial  tasks,  without  complaint  and  in  smiling 
intrepidity. 

So  many  great  souls  have  justified  our  faith  in  man- 
hood and  in  the  power  and  might  of  man.  In  many 
lonely  places  men  have  found  refuge  from  a  despiteful 
world  and  have  lived  and  died  in  peace.  When  one  thinks 
of  the  lonely  old  age  that  may  be  his  portion,  he  can  find 
comfort  in  the  example  of  these  expatriates.  For  he  who 
gives  up  the  world,  not  because  of  cowardice,  but  because 
of  some  great  ideal  of  service  to  man.  or  because  he  is 
broken  with  age  and  failing  power,  cannot  be  entirely 
unjustified. 

Tis  an  appealing  picture  which  wise  old  Horace  pre- 
sents to  us.  He  knew  cities  and  crowds  and  yet  loved 
country  life  and  country  ways.  He  retired  to  his  farm  in 
the  Sabine  Hills,  there  to  spend  a  peaceful  and  contented 
age,  not  fawning  to  either  patrician  or  plebeian,  and  with 
an  infinitely  just  judgment  of  social  values. 

He  who  has  a  little  competency  to  keep  him  from 
sordid  and  bitter  dependency,  a  few  friends  whose  affec- 
tion will  cheer  his  declining  years,  the  companionship  of 


128  PHANTOM   CLUB    PAPERS. 

his  books,  and  of  the  green  fields  and  woods  and  streams 
that  he  has  grown  to  love,  and  some  faithful  soul  to  com- 
fort him  when  the  final  summons  comes, — these  will  be  the 
great  compensations  of  his  age.  And  if  he  can  happily 
have  wife  and  children  to  help  him  bear  the  burdens  of 
age,  he  will  be  indeed  blest,  even  though  all  the 
rewards  and  prizes  of  worldly  success  have  turned  to 
ashes. 

Growing  old  has  many  stages.  You  can  remember 
the  time  when,  in  reading  your  favorite  author,  you  were 
disgusted  to  find  that  he  had  made  his  hero  forty  years 
old,  and  you  wondered  how  he  could  be  guilty  of  imputing 
romance  to  such  an  unconscionable  age.  By  and  by,  even 
though  you  found  forty  years  to  be  the  old  age  of  youth, 
you  were  solaced  by  the  thought  that  it  was  the  youth  of 
old  age,  and  still  later  you  will  wonder  where  youth  ends 
and  old  age  begins. 

In  many  assemblages  you  once  found  yourself  the 
youngest  man,  or  among  the  youngest.  But  with  the 
swift-flying  years,  you  finally  found  yourself  equal  in 
age  to  most  of  those  in  all  assemblies ;  but  the  time  comes 
when  only  younger  men  are  crowding  around  you.  And 
when  you  try  to  evade  the  thought  that  you  are  growing 
old,  along  comes  some  kindly  friend  with  the  greeting, — 
"How  young  you  are  looking." 

You  grow  to  regard  as  babes,  wild  young  blades  of 
forty  and  fifty.  You  may  comfort  yourself  with  the 
thought  expressed  by  Holmes.  He  says  that  he  could 
feel  fairly  immune  from  death  as  long  as  older  men  whom 


ON  GROWING   OLD.  129 

he  knew,  still  remained,  especially  if  they  were  of  a  much 
greater  age  than  himself.  They  were  farther  out  on  the 
skirmish  line,  and  must  be  taken  first. 

But  this  comfort  must  be  denied  you  when  the  outer 
defenses  are  gone  and  the  outposts  have  been  taken. 
When  three  score  and  ten  becomes  three  score  and 
twenty,  or  three  score  and  thirty,  even  though  judgment 
seems  to  be  indefinitely  stayed,  comes  the  great  tragedy. 
For  he  who  has  attained  this  length  of  years,  so  far 
beyond  that  allotted  to  man.  looks  out  upon  a  world  that 
must  seem  silent  and  deserted. 

"The  mossy  marbles  rest 
On  the  lips  that  he  has  prest 
In  their  bloom, 

And  the  names  he  loved  to  hear 
Have  been  carved  for  many  a  year 
On  the  tomb." 

"All  are  gone,  the  old  familiar  faces." 

He  and  death  alone  remain.  For  even  the  great 
destroyer  seems  to  have  a  certain  respect  for  such 
advanced  age. 

To  youth  deatli  presents  a  countenance  ruthless  and 
terrible.  But  often  with  the  last  survivor  of  his  genera- 
tion, death  seems  to  forget  his  office,  and  to  show  a  fine 
and  friendly  countenance,  as  if  he  would  say, 

We  two  must  gaze  upon  each  other  for  a  little  while. 

The  thought  of  this  delayed  traveler  might  be  like  that 
carved  on  a  headstone  in  an  old  German  churchyard ; — 

"O  Lord,  when  thou  callest  me  I  will  come, 
but  now  let  me  rest  a  little  for  I  am  very 
weary." 


130  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

Youth  is  cruel  because  unthinking.  Manhood  often 
does  not  venerate  justice  and  mercy.  Justice  must  always 
stand  at  the  court  of  conscience,  our  advocate  or  our 
accuser.  The  saddest  hours  of  age  are  those  of  retrospect 
over  injustice  done  and  wrongs  which  never  can  be 
righted.  To  a  soul  struggling  with  such  remembrance, 
the  waters  of  Lethe  are  more  desired  than  the  fountain 
of  eternal  youth.  If  we  could  only  forget!  Can  you 
forget  the  gentle  soul  that  watched  and  wept  over  you, 
and  hoped  and  prayed  for  you,  only  to  meet  careless  and 
unworthy  requital?  Where  are  the  waters  of  Lethe  that 
you  may  drink  oblivion?  Untroubled  and  hapnv  must  be 
the  age  that  does  not  have  these  memories. 

As  Burns  is  our  great  poet  of  the  affection,  so  Holmes 
is  surely  the  poet  of  age.  Over  life's  decline  he  has 
woven  in  verse  many  felicitous  half  jesting,  half  melan- 
choly fancies.  He  sees  the  tragic  side  of  age,  yet  will 
have  his  jest,  and  quip,  and  merry  disdain.  Nor  does  this 
jesting  ever  undignify  the  subject,  and  he  has  many  lines 
of  solemn,  tender  beauty  and  sadness. 

The  old  man  who  loves  books,  should  often  read 
Holmes,  for,  if  other  poets  have  written  the  epic  of  youth, 
he  has  written  the  epic  of  both  youth  and  age.  For  he 
who  would  grow  old  graciously  must  have  the  heart  of 
a  child  as  well  as  the  wisdom  of  ripened  manhood. 

I  give  you  here  a  few  fragments  from  Holmes.     In 

birthday  verses  to  Lowell  he  writes : 

"We  will  not  speak  of  years  to-night, — 
For  what  have  years  to  bring 
But  larger  floods  of  love  and  light, 
And  sweeter  songs  to  sing?" 


ON  GROWING   OLD.  13| 

Thus  he  satirizes  amatory  age : 

"Though  young  no  more,  we  still  would  dream 
Of  beauty's  dear  deluding  wiles; 
The  leagues  of  life  to  graybeards  seem 
Shorter  than  boyhood's  lingering  miles." 

In  1854  he  wrote  "The  Old  Man  Dreams,"  in  1859 
"A  Modernized  Version  of  Gil  Bias."  His  "Last  Leaf" 
is  a  household  poem. 

In  1882  he  wrote  "Before  the  Curfew,"  a  poem  of 

exceeding  beauty. 

"Not  bed-time  yet!    The  night-winds  blow, 
The  stars  are  out, — full  well  we  know 
The  nurse  is  on  the  stair, 
With  hand  of  ice  and  cheek  of  snow, 
And  frozen  lips  that  whisper  low, 
Come,  Children,  it  is  time  to  go 

My  peaceful  couch  to  share. 

****** 

No  years  a  faithful  heart  can  tire; 
Not  bed-time  yet!    come  stir  the  fire 
And  warm  your  dear  old  hands; 
Kind  Mother  Earth  we  love  so  well 
Has  pleasant  stories  yet  to  tell 
Before  we  hear  the  curfew  bell; 
Still  glow  the  burning  brands. 
****** 

Not  bed-time  yet!    The  full-blown  flower 

Of  all  the  year — this  evening  hour — 

With  friendship's  flame  is  bright; 

Life  still  is  sweet,  the  heavens  are  fair, 

Though  fields  are  brown  and  woods  are  bare, 

And  many  a  joy  is  left  to  share 

Before  we  say  Good-night." 

There  is  much  more,  but  I  must  draw  this  paper  to  a 
cfose.  I  would  like  to  have  carved  in  marble  over  the 
grave  of  Holmes,  the  lines  he  dedicated  to  Lowell : — 

"Rest  to  his  hours  of  manly  toil, 
Peace  to  his  starlit  dreams, 
Who  loved  alike  the  furrowed  soil, 
The  music-haunted  streams." 


132  PHANTOM   CLUB   PAPERS. 

I  have  heard  one  of  your  number  read  at  former  meet- 
ings a  poem  entitled — 

"I  want  to  Hear  the  Old  Band  Play." 

The  plaintive  note  running  through  the  poem  is  the 
romance  and  glamour  of  the  old  friends,  the  old  times, 
the  old  scenes,  and  the  old  days.  And  when  the  aged 
author  of  this  poem  hears  the  new  band  play  the  new 
tunes,  it  makes  him  long  to  hear  the  old  band  play,  for 
in  his  heart  still  live  the  melodies  of  youth. 

The  most  pathetic  thought  that  comes  to  us  is,  that 
if  he  could  hear  the  old  band  play,  he  would  be  dis- 
appointed. In  memory  be  hears  it  play  with  the  fancied 
feelings  of  youth,  and  he  idealizes  it  as  he  idealizes  the 
hills,  and  streams,  and  scenes  of  early  years ;  even  as  the 
sound  of  distant  church  bells  heard  over  summer  fields 
has  a  cadence  of  beauty  that  is  lost  when  you  reach  the 
shadow  of  the  steeple. 

If  the  gray-haired  dreamer  revisits  the  past  he  can 
not  make  it  seem  the  same.  The  hills  will  be  smaller, 
and  the  fields  different,  and  the  streams  will  have  a 
lessened  charm.  He  is  like  a  parent  who  thinks  of  the 
child  he  lost  long  years  before,  and  idealizes  its  memory. 
But  if  by  miracle  he  could  again  see  this  child,  he  might 
suffer  dreadful  disappointment,  unless  he  too  could  re- 
trace the  years  and  be  what  he  was  when  the  child  was 
taken  away. 

The  pathos  of  this  song  is  typical,  and  yet,  while  in 
some  of  our  moods  we  would  like  to  hear  the  old  band 


ON  GROWING   OLD.  133 

play,  we  might  be  almost  afraid  to  have  it  play,  lest  its 
music  suffer  from  the  disillusions  of  our  age. 

So  many  graves  have  grown  green,  so  many  hopes 
have  vanished,  so  many  changes  have  come  since  our 
youth,  that  we  can  never  bring  back  the  old  feeling,  the 
old  view-point.  I  too,  want  to  hear  the  old  band  play, 
and  yet  this  wish  has  its  fearful  element. 

"*****    your  old  men  shall  dream 
dreams,  and  your  young  men  shall  see  visions." 

So  we  look  "across  the  great  gulf  of  time  and  parting, 
and  grief." 

So  we  have  with  us,  both  the  dreamland  of  youth,  and 
the  dreamland  of  age. 

Yet  in  our  age  we  can  illumine  our  dreams  by 
remembering  the  visions  of  our  youth. 

Until  shall  come  to  each, — 

"The  poppied  sleep,  the  end  of  all." 


AT  OCONOMOWOC. 


By  John  Goadby  Gregory. 

Too  late  for  an  outing's  as  bad  as  too  soon; 
The  properest  date  is  the  middle  of  June. 
The  sun  is  a  bridegroom,  the  year  is  his  bride, 
The  flowers  are  blooming  in  beauty  and  pride. 
The  rose  on  its  stem  and  the  pink  on  its  stalk. 
When  the  Phantoms  go  out  to  Ocononiowoe. 

The  lake's  silver  disk  with  its  margin  of  green 
Makes  a  picture  enchanting  as  ever  was  seen. 
Delightful  upon  the  bright  waters  to  ride! 
Inspiring  to  meet  those  who  dwell  by  their  side! 
Unbounded  enjoyment  there's  nothing  to  balk 
When  the  Phantoms  go  out  to  Oconomowoc. 

Conies  Petit  to  bid  them  his  guests  at  Oak  Knoll — 
The  good  shot,  the  good  chauffer,  good  banker,  good  soul, 
The  good  host,  whose  contentment  quite  largely  depends 
On  the  joy  he  c-reates  in  the  hearts  of  his  friends. 
There's  rare  entertainment,  there's  rollicking  talk, 
When  the  Phantoms  go  out  to  Oconomowoc. 

The  Phantoms,  like  Moore,  have  the  wisdom  to  say, 
"As  we  journey  through  life,  let  us  live  by  the  way!" 
And  to  help  to  give  life  a  particular  zest, 
They  adhere  to  the  rule  of  selecting  the  best. 
From  the  zone  of  the  ostrich  to  that  of  the  auk. 
What  surpasses  Oak  Knoll  and  Oconomowoc! 

June,    1911. 

134 


IN   MEMORIAM. 


Tributes  to  Capt.  Irving  M.  Bean,  Ogden  H.  Fethers, 
Judge  Joseph  V.  Quarees  and  James  A.  Bryden. 


Address  of  Judge  James  G.  Jenkins,  before  the  Phantom 
Club,  at  Oconomowoc,  June  18,  iqii: 

Another  outing  of  the  Immortals !  Another  milestone 
reached  on  the  life  journey  of  the  Phantoms !  Another 
gathering  of  the  clan  to  enjoy  for  a  season  the  beauties  of 
Nature ;  to  indulge  delightful  hospitality ;  to  encourage 
the  love  of  letters ;  to  listen  once  again  to  words  of 
wisdom  and  of  beauty  as  they  fall  from  the  lips  of  phil- 
osopher and  of  poet ;  to  strengthen  faith  in  the  virtues  of 
indomitable  courage,  of  unfaltering  hope,  and  in  the  spirit 
of  kindly  fellowship  which  lightens  pain  and  is  the  solace 
of  life;  to  recall  in  loving  memory  those  of  our  band  who 
have  passed  beyond  the  veil. 

The  years  have  dealt  tenderly  with  some  of  us ;  to 
others  they  have  brought  care  and  suffering.  The  well 
and  the  strong  would,  if  they  could,  share  the  burden  of 
those  afflicted.  They  at  least  may  tender  their  love  and 
sympathy. 

Since  we  last  met,  death  has  claimed  one  of  our  num- 
ber. At  that  outing  Phantom  Bean  lay  in  a  distant  city 
wounded  unto  death.  But  he  forgot  not  the  meeting  of 
the  comrades,   and    from   his  bed  of  pain   sent  a   loving 

135 


136  PHANTOM   CLUB    PAPERS. 

message.  "I  have  had,"  he  said,  "a  little  bad  luck  re- 
cently, but  the  worst  stroke  of  all  is  my  inability  to  be 
with  you.  My  spirit,  hopeful  and  unimpaired,  will  be 
wholly  with  you  all." 

We  wired  him  greeting  and  expressed  the  hope — 
"May  the  day  be  far  distant  when  Comrade  Bean  shall 
become  a  disembodied  Phantom." 

But  that  hope  was  not  to  be  realized.  The  summer 
passed,  and  when  the  leaves  had  fallen  and  the  year  was 
dying  our  friend  and  comrade  bowed  his  head  to  the  in- 
evitable. "God's  finger  touched  him  and  he  slept."  He 
was  a  loyal  citizen,  a  brave  soldier,  a  genial,  cultured 
gentleman. 

If  death  be  the  end  and  the  end  all  of  life,  we  may  at 
least  indulge  the  consolation,  touching  him  and  each  of 

our  comrades  who  have  gone,  that — 

"After  life's  fitful  fever,  he  sleeps  well," 
leaving  behind  him  the  goodly  example  of  a  career  void 
of  offense. 

If,  however,  as  the  world  would  trust,  there  remains 
for  all  the  countless  dead  another  and  a  better  life ;  if  the 
spirits  of  the  dead  indeed  re-visit  the  scenes  of  earth ;  if 
the  departed  indeed  take  cognizance  of  the  affairs  of 
time,  may  we  not  indulge  the  pleasing  hope  that  the  freed 
spirits  of  our  departed  comrades  linger  near  us  upon 
these  accustomed  outings,  sharing  our  joy,  participating 
in  the  delights  of  friendship ;  and  may  we  not  hope  to 
catch  from  them  some  spark  of  inspiration  that  shall  aid 
to  the  intelligent  discharge  of  duty;  that  shall  prompt  to 
nobler  and  to  kindlier  lives  ? 


IN  MEMORIAM.  137 

Address  of  Judge  James  G.  Jenkins,  at  the  Phantom  Club 
Outing,  June  16,  1912: 
Phantoms  : — At  our  last  outing  there  were  two  com- 
rades present  whose  faces  we  shall  see  no  more.  They 
were  intimate  and  life-long  companions,  examples  of  the 
friendship  which  is  said  to  have  existed  between  David 
and  Jonathan.  They  were  united  in  their  lives,  and  in 
their  deaths  they  were  not  divided.  The  one  came  to 
that  meeting  with  slow  and  painful  step,  conscious  that  he 
could  never  be  with  us  again.  He  came  with  the  mark 
of  death  upon  him  and  yet  was  loth  to  go  without  meeting 
once  more  the  comrades  with  whom  he  had  long  been 
associated,  and  joining  for  the  last  time  in  the  delights 
of  kindly  fellowship. 

The  other,  in  marked  contrast,  came  joyous,  bright, 
gladsome,  full  of  enthusiasm,  replete  with  the  love  and 
enjoyment  of  life,  mental  and  physical.  Of  the  comrades 
present,  he  seemed  the  most  ardent,  the  most  appreciative 
and  the  most  entertaining.  He  read  upon  that  occasion 
a  paper  upon  the  subject  of  "New  England  Reticence," 
which  exhibited  the  mental  vigor,  the  studious  research, 
the  philosophical  mind  and  the  cultured  style  of  a  finished 
scholar. 

Mark  now  how  strange  and  unaccountable  are  the  de- 
crees of  fate !  The  one  who  came  to  us  with  the  stamp  of 
death  upon  him,  lingered  for  some  months  before  he 
passed  beyond  mortal  ken.  The  other,  who  was  so  joy- 
ous and  full  of  life,  within  ten  days  after  our  meeting 
entered  upon  the  great  unknown. 


138  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

I  can  never  forget  the  parting  with  Ogden  Fethers. 
When  bidding  him  farewell  I  asked  when  we  might  ex- 
pect to  see  him  in  Milwaukee.  With  tears  in  his  eyes  his 
answer  was,  "I  fear  my  next  visit  to  Milwaukee  will  be 
to  attend  the  funeral  of  poor  Joe."  He  did  not  live  to 
perform  that  mournful  duty.  His  next  visit  to  Milwau- 
kee was  when  his  body  was  borne  thither  for  cremation. 

Judge  Quarles  was  an  eminent  citizen  of  the  Republic. 
He  had  filled  exalted  stations  for  which  his  attainments 
had  greatly  qualified  him.  As  a  state  senator  he  rendered 
efficient  service  to  his  state.  As  a  senator  of  the  United 
States  he  took  part  in  the  great  debates  which  settled  the 
policy  of  the  nation,  and  was  a  zealous  and  persistent 
worker  in  the  committees  which  investigated  conditions  and 
framed  laws  to  rectify  abuses.  As  a  judge  of  the  United 
States  District  Court  he  labored  in  the  performance  of 
duty  with  unflagging  zeal,  with  great  ability  and  with 
absolute  inpartiality.  The  daily  familiar  intercourse  with 
him,  which  it  was  my  privilege  for  several  years  to  enjoy, 
bred  in  me  a  fondness  for  him  which  renders  it  difficult 
to  speak  of  him  in  measured  terms.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that 
he  was  a  kindly  man  and  just ;  loyal  to  every  duty,  de- 
voted in  his  friendships,  faithful  to  every  trust. 

Mr.  Fethers  was  one  of  the  most  lovable  men  I  ever 
knew.  His  exuberant  love  of  life  and  of  books,  possibly 
overshadowed,  in  a  measure,  his  real  ability  as  a  lawyer 
and  a  man  of  affairs.  While  in  active  practice  he  stood 
in  the  front  rank  of  his  profession  and  was  deliberate  and 
acute  in  the  transaction  of  business.     He  at  one  time  en- 


IN  MEMORIAM.  139 

tered  political  life.  To  his  credit  be  it  said,  he  therein 
failed.  On  one  occasion,  deeming  it  his  duty  to  oppose, 
as  he  did  successfully,  the  nominee  of  his  party,  he  was 
afterwards,  in  some  degree,  politically  ostracized  by  the 
party  in  his  locality.  He  made  the  mistake  of  daring  to 
be  independent,  of  presuming  to  be  true  to  his  own  con- 
victions, and  in  refusing  to  bow  to  the  party  yoke.  That 
was  then  accounted  a  cardinal  sin,  but  is  coming  to  be 
considered  a  public  virtue.  But  it  was  as  a  social  com- 
panion that  he  shone  resplendent.  Of  a  sunny,  genial 
disposition,  he  was  the  life  of  every  friendly  gathering, 
diffusing  mirth  and  kindly  fellowship.  His  coming  was 
the  entrance  of  a  beam  of  sunshine.  His  presence  was 
an  inspiration.  He  was  a  ripe  scholar.  Like  the  hum- 
ming bird,  he  Muttered  about  every  flower  of  poetry  and 
prose,  sipping  the  honey  of  the  thought  and  storing  it  in 
his  mind  to  exhale  it  for  the  delight  of  friends.  A  genial 
gentleman.     A  most  lovable  man. 

Farewell,  companions  and  brothers.  Upon  your 
graves  we  scatter  the  flowers  of  our  affections  and  hold 
in  loving  keeping  the  memories  of  your  noble  and  useful 
lives.  You  sleep  the  sleep  that  knows  no  disturbing 
dreams.  From  the  cares  and  troubles  of  life  you  are  now 
absolved.  The  infinite  in  very  deed  hath  granted  you 
good  deliverance. 

Comrades,  they  have  by  but  a  little  preceded  us  on  the 
journey  which  each  of  us  must  take.  One  by  one,  and 
shortly  now  for  some  of  us,  we  must  bid  adieu  to  the 
scenes  of  earth  and   go  unattended   into  the  Great  Un- 


140  PHANTOM    CLUB   PAPERS. 

known.  May  the  certainty  of  the  event  and  the  brevity 
of  life,  inspire  us  to  make  the  best  of  the  remnant  of  time 
that  remains,  and  to  be  more  kindly  and  more  faithful 
in  the  discharge  of  the  duty  which  we  owe  to  the  living. 


Address  of  Gerry  W.  Hazelton,  at  the  Phantom  Club 
Outing,  June  15,  19 13: 

Mr.  President  :  We  miss  from  our  gathering  to- 
day the  kindly  familiar  face  of  Brother  Bryden,  one  of 
the  charter  members  of  the  Phantom  Club.  He  has  been 
such  a  regular  attendant  at  our  annual  outings  that  his 
absence  is  all  the  more  noticeable,  and  the  fact  that  he 
will  meet  with  us  never  again  occasions  unfeigned  sorrow 
in  the  hearts  of  all  of  us.  A  resident  of  Milwaukee  for 
more  rhan  half  a  century,  he  was  among  its  oldest  and 
most  highly  respected  citizens,  and  his  death  will  be 
widely  lamented. 

A  native  of  Scotland,  he  possessed  in  full  measure 
the  characteristics  of  his  countrymen,  but  at  the  same 
time  it  can  be  said  that  he  was  a  thoroughly  loyal 
American,  and  deeply  attached  to  our  republican  institu- 
tions. No  one  could  be  more  so.  His  life  was  an  open 
book.  Integrity  of  thought  and  purpose  was  stamped 
upon  his  features  and  illustrated  in  his  life. 

Thurlow  Weed,  founder  of  the  Albany  Evening 
Journal,  in  his  volume  of  "Recollections"  speaks  of  the 
passengers  he  found  on  the  packet  ship  Washington 
which  sailed  from  New  York  to  Liverpool  in  the  spring 


IN  MBMORIAM.  141 

of  1843.  Among  these  were  many  natives  of  Ireland 
who  were  returning  to  their  own  little  island  after  an 
unsatisfactory  experience  with  conditions  in  the  New 
World.  One  day  he  happened  to  encounter  a  genuine 
Scotchman  whose  dialect  could  not  be  mistaken,  and  when 
he  inquired  of  him  if  he  also  was  tired  of  America,  he 
was  quickly  advised  to  the  contrary.  The  Scotchman 
told  him  he  had  purchased  a  farm  at  Clinton,  near  Utica, 
and  had  three  boys  old  enough  to  manage  it  and  more 
coming  on — in  fact,  he  was  the  father  of  fourteen  chil- 
dren. He  was  going  to  Scotland  on  business,  and  ex- 
pected to  be  back  in  season  to  assist  in  harvesting  the 
crop.  The  name  of  the  Scotchman  was  Bryden,  and 
James,  of  whom  we  are  speaking,  was  one  of  his  boys. 

In  early  life  he  joined  the  tide  of  young  men  who 
were  coming  West  to  enter  upon  business  or  professional 
careers,  and  fortunately  located  in  Milwaukee,  where  he 
passed  an  active  and  useful  life  and  accumulated  a  prop- 
erty amply  sufficient  for  all  his  needs.  His  presentation 
to  Milwaukee  and  the  public  of  the  beautiful  statue  of 
Burns,  which  is  one  of  the  artistic  attractions  of  the  city, 
is  conclusive  evidence  of  his  public  spirit.  It  attests, 
moreover,  his  loyalty  to  the  land  of  his  birth,  and  his 
pride  in  the  great  names  which  have  made  Scotland 
"beloved  at  home,  revered  abroad." 

Enjoying  the  respect  and  good  will  of  his  business 
associates  and  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  a  wide  circle 
of  friends,  his  life  may  be  cited  as  illustrating  an  ex- 
emplary and  needed  type  of  valuable  citizenship. 


142  PHANTOM    CLUB    PAPERS. 

Not  showy,  not  demonstrative,  not  what  the  world 
calls  book-wise,  he  was  a  stanch  friend,  a  sturdy  and  loyal 
American,  true  to  the  best  traditions  and  teachings  of  the 
Republic,  and  deeply  interested  in  the  public  welfare ;  and 
after  all,  it  is  upon  the  citizens  of  his  stamp,  and  not  upon 
the  demagogues  and  self-seekers  we  must  rely  for  the 
stability  and  efficiency  of  our  institutions. 

He  evinced  no  desire  at  any  time  to  enter  the  field  of 
politics,  but  he  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  and  twice  elected  president  of  that  body ; 
he  was  an  active  and  influential  member  and  for  several 
years  at  the  head  of  St.  Andrew's  Society  of  Milwaukee ; 
he  was  also  elected  president  of  the  Old  Settlers'  Club, 
and  at  one  time  represented  the  old  Seventh  Ward  in  the 
Common  Council. 

In  addition  to  what  has  been  said  concerning  the 
Burns  statue,  it  is  proper  to  add  that  the  gift  was  the 
consummation  of  a  desire  long  entertained.  His  admir- 
ation of  the  distinguished  poet  was  an  open  secret.  With 
the  best  known  of  his  poems  our  brother  was  familiar 
and  many  of  them  he  loved  to  repeat.  Those  who  wit- 
nessed the  impressive  ceremonial  when  the  statue  was 
unveiled  in  June,  1909,  cannot  fail  to  recall  the  joyous 
satisfaction  which  he  manifested  on  the  occasion.  His 
one  ambition,  so  long  and  ardently  cherished,  had  at  last 
been  realized,  and  it  may  be  safely  assumed  that  the  event 
marked  the  proudest  and  happiest  moment  of  his  life. 
And  well  it  might.  He  had  made  not  only  the  present 
but  succeeding  generations  his  debtor,  and  could  not  fail 


IN  MBMORIAM.  143 

to  know  that  through  all  the  coming  years  his  name  will 
be  gratefully  associated  with  that  splendid  triumph  of  art. 
This  is  not  the  time  or  the  place  for  attempting  an 
elaborate  sketch  of  our  deceased  brother,  but  the  occa- 
sion calls  for  an  expression  of  our  sense  of  the  loss  we 
have  sustained  in  his  departure  and  an  appreciative  refer- 
ence to  his  sterling  qualities.  We  tender  our  sincere 
sympathy  to  his  widow  and  surviving  kindred,  with  the 
assurance  that  the  memory  of  the  departed  will  be  ten- 
derly cherished  by  every  member  of  our  club. 


PHANTOM   CLUB   ROSTER. 


James  G.  Jenkins 

Gerry  W.  Hazelton 

De  Witt  Davis 

Neae  Brown 
George  R.  Peck 

Louis  J.  Petit 

Frederick  C.  Winkler 

John  G.  Gregory 
John  B.  Winseow 

Eugene  W.  Chaein 

Roeland  L.  Porter 

John  W.  P.  Lombard 
William  H.  Osborne 


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